Lancer and Heart Productions
by RockBane
Summary: Remember reading Twisting Paths of Twilight? Remember Looming Shadow which was a Lancer and Heart production? A company founded by the Digidestine? Well, it's back in business so here's the continuation of movies brought to you by Lancer and Heart!
1. Clash of the Horned Ones part 1

Clash of the Horned Ones

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-Telepathy-

V Scene change and time change

- Different point of view

'- Flash back

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Chapter 1

He studies the script that Kari and TK managed to create for the latest Lancer and Heart production, the second film to be made by the Digidestine, and now, Tamers. It wasn't going to be a continuation of Looming Shadows, but a whole different movie with very inhuman beings as the stars.

Much like last time, he gets to do the drawings of what kind of look they're going have, which means he'll have a lot of work ahead of him since the 'costumes' will be depending on how life like his picture of the characters will look like. He just knows that it'll be a rush job since he also has to worry about getting his homework done on time as well. _'Sure we'll be able to film in about three months time, when everyone's going to be on summer vacation. This means three months of nitpicking as well as rewrites.'_ He muses to himself while Henry, Rika, and Ryo seem to still reading their pages.

He knows that Rika's going to be furious about what kind of races will be involved, Rika's never stuck him as a horse lover after all, it's highly doubtful that Rika's interested in Unicorns, though Rika might like the idea of Hell Steeds, thought they'll most likely have to find a different name to use for those. He notices that Henry has read the final page, and he grins at one of his best friends.

Henry gives him a dry look and scoots away from mountain Rika. Rika and Ryo finish reading the final page and like Henry and him figured, his girl friend exploded clearly indigent about two main races. He chuckles to himself as Rika hits Ryo in the face before the other teenager could move out of the way, it doesn't really surprise him when Renamon appears to find out what's got Rika's 'goat' this time.

Henry, being closer to the humanoid fur, hands the golden coloured rookie his script that's turned to the final page. He wonders if that was a flash of amusement that appeared in Renamon's eyes for a second there, but decides to tone into what Rika's exploding about. He winces at what Rika's threatening to do to a certain blonde's manhood, which most likely translated into TK's.

"I believe Kari has already staked her claim to that part of TK." He points out to Rika; he tries to look innocent as Rika gives him a piecing look. "Whose side are you on?" Rika growls out, clearly going to make this personal for him. He laughs nervously before answering, "Um, I refuse to answer that on the grounds that I'd be shooting myself in both feet."

Renamon and Henry seem amused by his answer while Rika growls before she spins around to grab her back pack, she leaves in a huff. Renamon nods before vanishing into the shadows of Guilmon's shed. "Tough luck, Takato. You just set yourself up for a whole a week no snuggling with the Ice Queen." Terriermon pipes in from the entrance of the shed. "Terriermon…" Henry says as usual when Henry thinks his partner crossed over a boundary line.

Guilmon pops his head into the shed; it seems that Calumon took off already. "Are you going to be ok, Takatomon? Terriermon said you won't be getting any tender love from Rika for a while…" Guilmon asks in a concerned tone, with a sigh his head drops to his chest as Henry says, "Terriermon!" "Momentai!" Terriermon replies nervously.

"Well, I guess I'll see you guys later. It seems I got to see a guy about a position." Ryo says, they all kind of look at Ryo, he'd forgotten that Ryo was still there… He nods at Ryo as he grins at the other teen as he says, "See you then. But I suggest trying Sora or Kari if you're looking for a different position, though, just wondering, what position did you get?" "I got Scenery Consultant." Ryo says before the Legendary Tamer leaves the shed, all the while he's just stands there with a slightly undetermined look on his face as he tries to wrap his mind around that position.

Guilmon and Terriermon enter into the shed while he sends Henry a questioning look. "I got assigned to computer department and I have to contact Izzy about what I can do. You?" Henry asks and he replies causally, "I got my old job back which was character design, and I'm the guy that draws the story board too, though that's unofficial."

Terriermon looked like he really wanted to say something but Henry kept giving the rookie glares. He's slightly surprise that this tactic was working, until he remembered that Terriermon really, really wants a PSP and the only way Terriermon would get to play it was by staying on Henry's good side, AKA not talking when Henry's giving him glares within every ten seconds.

"So, did you want to go window shopping?" He asks Henry, a flicker of amusement appears in Henry's eyes as Terriermon looks hopefully at his partner and friend. "Well… I don't know, Takato. I mean, I got homework to do as well as refreshing my computer skills, especially since I do want to do my part for Lancer and Heart's newest production." Henry says with fake reluctance. He winks over at Guilmon since Terriermon seems to be sulking about this, his partner suppresses a giggle. "But I guess an hour couldn't hurt." Henry says after a minute, Terriermon lets loose a mighty cheer and was trying to drag Henry out of the shed despite the little fact that Henry's way taller and heavier then the pint size rookie.

-Rika

She tosses her pack in the usual corner of her room and sits down by her table, a scowl plastered on her face. Out of habit, she's already shuffling her card deck before laying them out before her. Her mind was else where, cursing not the plot line, but the position that was assigned to her within the company for this project.

'_How did they find out? I know Takato didn't tell them about it, nor would Henry. Which logically leaves… Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb, especially since Terriermon wouldn't tell since he's trying to be on his best behaviour or fear Henry not buying a PSP. I'm going to beat them to a bloody pulp next time I see them!'_ She snarls mentally to herself. Images of what she'd like to do to the pair calmed her slightly as she begins her game.

"Do you want to talk about it, Rika?" Her golden furred partner asks as she one more reshuffles her card deck. She sighs and decides to tell Renamon what's wrong. "I got assigned to music section, which is under Matt. This means that someone spilled the beans about my ability to sing, I also have a suspension on who did it as well." She says, her eyes narrowed as her anger once more is aroused.

"You don't think its Takato or you'd had ripped into him more then what you did before you left. So you expect?" Renamon asks. "Kazu and Kenta, I've ruled Terriermon out simply because he wants to remain on Henry's good side so that Brainiac will buy a PSP." She replies to Renamon's inquiry. "Impmon could have tattled." Renamon points out and she snorts as she dismisses that thought. "While I'm sure Impmon would be more then willing, he's currently out of Japan with his partners. Besides, it doesn't sound like something he would do." She points out.

Her partner doesn't seem to have anything more to say and she motions for Renamon to join her. "Want to start you're lesson early?" She asks and Renamon nods, within seconds Renamon has her card deck in her hand… paw and was already shuffling her card deck as Renamon sets herself down at the table. She waits for Renamon to make the first move.

-TK

He's going over a few pictures that Takato made so far, one of them perked his interested. He turned it over and read a bit of information that Takato put on the back of the sheet. The breed of horse that Takato had drawn had been an Oldenburg stallion. There were some jot notes about why this kind of breed should be used as a Hell Steed instead of a Unicorn.

'_We really do need to get better names for the two races.'_ He tells himself as he studies the picture once more. He puts it in the acceptance pile, the only one he likes out of the eight drawings Takato had been able to make with the first deadline. He finishes stacking the rejects before taking out a sheet of lined paper and the drawing of the Oldenburg stallion.

He walks up to the bill board and pins the drawing up. He sits down at the desk and begins to think up names as well as suggestions of what could be added to the Oldenburg type to make it into one of the three horse types they're going to be using for the Hell Steeds. He snaps out of it as something distracts him.

Patamon wakes from resting on his pillow and asks, "What time is it?" He glances at his partner and replies, "It's about four twenty-six." Patamon jerks up and within seconds, his orange partner flies out of the room, leaving him alone in his own bedroom. He states blankly at the door to his room before shrugging and returning to his thoughts and ideas of what some of the Hell Steeds will be like.

V

They were currently having a progress meeting at the Hypnos building in the Tamer's reality. They were using one of the many meeting rooms that Hypnos has available. Also, most of the people sitting around the table were either here because they're department heads or if they just want to attend the meeting.

He also notices the concerned looks one of his best friends from childhood, Takato, was giving him even though Rika's not looking his way. It kind of made him nervous since he's aware of what Rika tends to do to those that displease her. Kari places a comforting hand on his arm, she most likely has noticed the looks Takato's been giving him, it didn't hurt that Takato has been known as Tai and Kari's adopted since he's known the other teen.

"I wonder what set her off." Davis wonders in a whisper to his left. "I don't know but I'm sure we'll find out eventually." He mutters tiredly. They quit it down as Mimi brings the meeting to order.

"Ok, so today we'll be hearing from TK, Takato, Matt, and Izzy. We'll also be voting on who's going to be the director, though Gennai's come up with some nifty hovering cameras that are controlled by computers. We'll be field testing them in two to three weeks." Mimi says to the group around the table.

Mimi motions for him to stand up and addresses the gathering of Digidestine and Tamers; he's not that surprise to see some of the International Digidestine here at the meeting, after all, Mimi had gotten the latest list of Digidestine from Izzy who's in charge of the International Registry for their world. He then begins once he's done glancing at those gathered together, "Well first off, we really need to come up with new names for the two main races." This was met with many nods in agreement, he then continues, "I've also come up with some characters for the Steed side of the story and would like people's opinion when you get the time to reading them. My E-mail address is on these sheets so you know how to get a hold of me." He hands a stack of sheets to Davis and Kari; they in turn start passing them to those next to them. "That's all I have to say for now." He adds and takes a seat in the chair he had been sitting in.

His elder brother then stands up and begins to speak about what kind music he envisions for the up coming movie. He blinks as he notices a practically stormy look on Rika's face as she looks at his brother. He's relieved that it wasn't him that Rika's angry with, but was also concerned about his brother.

He glances at Takato and then at Rika. His friend looks surprised and then seems to be struck by an idea. He returns to listening to his brother while Takato's face seems to be an unreadable mask at the moment.

-Takato

Some how, he's relieved that Rika's not out to get TK; she's just out to get TK's elder brother. He also has a sinking feeling as to why Rika would be against Matt as well. _'Who told them about Rika's singing ability?'_ He wonders, his comes up with a really short list of at least three people and he knows for certain that Terriermon wouldn't spill the beans which leave Kazu and Kenta as his only suspects.

He wonders just what Rika plans to do with the pair; sure they're old friends of his but he still has to wonder what thoughts erupt in their heads, especially Kazu since he's often the leader of the pair. He blinks as he realises that Matt's beginning to seat himself, he notices Izzy giving him a questioning glance and he motions for Izzy to take over as Matt pulls the chair up to the table.

Izzy stands up with sheets of paper in his hands. Izzy hands the pages to his neighbours so they could pass them around. "With some help from Ryo, we've founded about three different dimensions that we can safely film the movie at. All three sites are listed in the hand outs as well as their pros and cons. We had toured a grand total of twelve dimensions that Ryo thought would work." Izzy informs them.

He blinks, surprised to learn that Ryo could travel through different realities. Izzy continued on for a bit on the three choices that were in the hand out. He takes note of the pictures that had been taken at each site in the three realities that Ryo had taken Izzy and most likely Kari to.

Soon enough it's his turn to tell those gathered of his progress. He stands up once Izzy's sitting down. "So far, I've researched about thirteen different horse breeds to base the looks of the six horse types off of. TK's taken a liking to a breed called Oldenburg for one of the Steeds. It would help if people would help by helping me look through the breeds, it seems that there's at well over fifty breeds, and I'll not even bring up the subject of sub-types either." He says to those around the table, some look slightly sheepish about not thinking it over.

Once he's said his piece, he sits down. Mimi and Tai have a slight staring contest before Mimi once more takes over directing the meeting. "Ok, if you have any comments concerning the subjects discussed during this first meet, you can drop them off with Tai and myself." Mimi says, looking around the table before she changes the subject. "Now, we have a generous stack of applicants for the job of Director. I've sorted through them and shorten most of the summaries into these hand outs. Take them and read them. For the next time we meet we'll start the process of elimination."

Soon after the meeting is adjured, he watches as Rika heads off to have a little 'chat' with Matt, he notices Matt's eyes widen slightly before regaining his cool. He just shakes his head as his 'siblings' approach him. He notices that TK's making a bee line towards Matt as well, most likely just going to be a witness so Rika doesn't do so much damage to the elder Digidestine of Friendship.

"So, how's you're school work coming along, 'genius.'" Tai asks, he chuckles slightly at one of his old titles. "About the same old, same old. So how's your soccer team?" He asks Tai, someone who he still considers to be his elder brother despite the fact that he's suppose to be an only child. "Ah, they'll survive without me while I'm participating in this production." Tai says with an easy grin on his face and a simple flick of his hand, as if that simple gesture by itself will dismiss the subject.

Kari snorts, clearly amused by Tai's behaviour. "So, just what set Rika off this time?" His adopted sister asks him, staring him straight in the eye. "I think someone spilled the beans about her singing ability, but you didn't hear it from me." He admits after a few seconds of internal debate about whether or not he should inform them.

"Rika can sing?" Tai asks, clearly startled by that revolution. "Like a bird!" Terriermon chirps before stuffing his face with the sandwich the rookie has in his hands. "It was Kazu and Kenta, wasn't it?" He asks the long eared Digimon, wondering where the rabbit looking dog Digimon came from.

He didn't get a reply from the Digimon and he just groans inwardly as to what Rika will most likely do to the pair.

-Matt

He knew he shouldn't have suggested that Rika should work for his in his department, but Kazu and Kenta did mention that Rika 'sang like a bird' and he thought it would be nice to have a female singer for some of the songs. While he's not sure how the pair got a recording of Rika singing, he knows that she's quiet good, if untrained. He could also understand why Takato kept silent on this, most likely trying not to aggravate Rika about what happened with that parasite mega controlled her.

So he wasn't that put out that she's making a bee line towards him, but that doesn't mean he wants to have a confrontation with the red head right at that pierce moment. He was trying to casually walk out of the room; he didn't want to draw unwanted attention to his plight. He also took note that his little brother was also heading in his direction, which meant that even if he couldn't get away, there'll be a witness to keep Rika from doing anything she'd regret.

Rika managed to caught up to him in the elevator, TK just manages to squeeze in as the doors closed. "So, what's the hurry?" TK asks, breaking the ice between them. Rika's eyes flash and he keeps his face as neutral as possible, it wouldn't do to show his nervousness in front of the red head Tamer that was also Takato's girlfriend.

To be continued …


	2. Clash of the Horned Ones part 2

Clash of the Horned Ones

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-Telepathy-

V Scene change and time change

- Different point of view

'- Flash back

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Chapter 2

He's bored, pure and simply bored. He hasn't heard back from the three that volunteered to help out with his research on the breeds of horses, he's tired of reading books on the subject as well as watching videos on the subject. He actually had been able to wear out Guilmon after a two hour long game of tag, which now leaves him utterly bored out of his skull as his partner takes a nap about four feet from his position..

He glances at the pencil resting on his scrap book. He sighs and picks the pair up and just draws some random things as he lets his mind drift. His thoughts centered on something like Rika, the upcoming movie, what kind of part he's going to try out for, and other such things as his hand moves almost of its own accorded.

He blinks as he hears Jeri shout out a greeting to him. He puts down his scrap book and puts the pencil behind his right ear as he waves at her. They chit chat for a few minutes before Jeri races off with some groceries she's taking home.

He blinks as he notices what he's sketched on the pad of paper. He grins as he looks at the Minotaur that's still under construction on the sheet. He sighs and flips it over to a new page, this time he begins to think about the few ideas that have been floating around in his head, things he's been meaning to try and incorporate into the basic horse design.

He took it in steps; he had to use the eraser a few times as he continued to draw what he wants to add onto the 'skeleton' of the fantasy horse based creature. But over the hour, the hellish looking horse took shape, thick hide took the form of armour as one of the front hooves became clover so that this blade could move between the two parts of the hoof. A jagged horn comes out of the beast's forehead while a pair of ram horns comes out by the ears. The mane had a few feathers in it as did the tail. As soon as he's done with the body's profile, he does a head sketch from the shoulders up.

He grins as he studies the picture of the Hell Steed; he dates it at the right corner and then wonders if he should name the beast. He grins as he signs the name Ara'Gan, which he takes the first three letters from the beginning of Arawn and the last three from Morgan to get come up with that name. He then turns the page and writes a mini bio about Ara'Gan by listing the Steed's likes and dislikes, his colour, his personality, and even a summary of history which includes Ara'Gan's parents and if he has any siblings and other family relations.

He smiles in satisfaction before closing his scrap book. He notices that Guilmon's now sleeping on his back. He snorts in amusement before gets up and stretches his arms and shoulders. He checks his D-Ark for the time, his stomach grumbles and oddly enough, Guilmon's stomach echoes his stomach. He blinks as he stares at his partner before just shaking his head.

He heads home; he'll pick something up for the red rookie after he's eaten his supper. He privately couldn't believe he spent most of the day hanging out in the park. _'I wonder what everyone else is up to.'_ He wonders to himself as he journey's through the park and then through the city to get home to his parent's bakery.

-Kari

She watches as Gatomon leaps around with those mini cameras trailing after her from different directions as they follow her partner through the forested area of the park. So far, so good, the cameras were not only sending amazingly clear and sharp images but also picking up a good amount of sound. She watches as Ken switches between windows once more.

"So I take it they've pass the field test." She states from behind Ken. "They seem to be; now it just falls to us to think of the angles in which to use the cameras for. I think we'll probably need to do some modification to increase the camera's microphone so the sound department will have an easier time of it." Ken says as he nods in agreement with her statement.

She glances towards Izzy first, then Henry, and then towards Gennai. She still couldn't believe that, once more, the Digital being that looks like a young man was helping them film a movie. She can't help but wonder how Mimi roped Gennai into helping them to begin with, she still remembers how that machine that Gennai created had been tested during Halloween, her elder brother, Tai, was the tester and had used Takato's drawing.

She once more looks over Ken's shoulder just as Gatomon does an impressive acrobatics. Soon Izzy calls a halt to the test and soon the video fed dies as the cameras heading towards them, it was also the signal to Gatomon that they're done with the test. Izzy and Henry were soon talking about something she couldn't quiet make out from her position.

Soon the cameras appear and settle in the carrying case Gennai had them resting in. Within minutes of the cluster of cameras deactivating, her partner appears. She motions to the packed snack that Takato had made and she watches as the white cat looking Digimon dig into the sushi that Takato had made. She just watches in amusement as she watches her partner seems to be mimicking Guilmon at this very moment.

'_I guess it's bound to happen, I mean, they did live together in the same apartment for about three years.'_ She muses to herself as Gatomon finishes the snack. She giggles slightly as Gatomon almost has the same expression on her face that Guilmon has when he's still hungry and looking for more food to eat. Gatomon looks her way before the champion level Digimon looks sheepish about how she ate her meal. She's so has teasing material to use before the film starts.

-TK

He pauses as he studies a drawing of a Yu'kara, the new name for Hell Steed race that Takato had drawn. The name of the stallion was Ara'Gan, he like what he saw of the Yu'kara that his best friend came up with, especially the clover hoof that would allow that blade to be used. He flips the page and finds a bio of Ara'Gan.

He sighs and closes the scrap book so he can take a gander at the pictures of Ki'souka, the new name for Unicorns, and other Yu'kara. The three chosen types to model Ki'souka were Hackney, Westphalian, and Trakehner breed while the other two for the Yu'kara were Noriker and Percheron. It had been decided that the Yu'kara would feature heavier set breed types then what would make up the Ki'souka race.

He notices some characteristics from the Ara'Gan drawing Takato had sketched on the Yu'karas, which he approved of since they're kind of like medieval war horses in armour and were going to be more of an earthy tone in colour. While on the Ki'soukas were meant to look nimble and just plain beautiful. A few of the Ki'souka had strips that remind one of a zebra while most had spots and splotches, they're also going to be focusing on light colours, maybe even use blues and greens for coat colour.

He put those he wants for characters in a different pile while the rest went into either background character approval pile or into the discard pile. By the time Takato comes back with new sheets of paper as well as some colour pencils so that they could work on the main characters as well as secondary characters. Takato notices the three piles and gives him a questioning look as Takato sits down on the floor; he moves the piles out of the way as Takato sets the pastels down while resting the new sheet of paper on his lap.

Takato takes the pencil from behind his right ear and asks, "Ok, which one should we work on first?" He picks up the pile he made for the character and after he finds the one he wants, he takes it out of the pile and hands it over to Takato. "We'll work on Baird first." He says to Takato as Takato studies the Trakehner picture. "What do you want? You know, for markings and colours." The goggle wearing Tamer asks him.

Soon enough they've decided that they'll have a baby blue snip on the muzzle with golden chestnut colour as the base colour. They used baby blue for the socks on the forelegs with the back hooves being white while the front hooves being black as well as the mane and tail having baby blue highlights. The horn would be the classic white colour. Baird would stand sixteen point one hands high.

Baqer was next on the list and he's going to be based off a picture of a Yu'kara Oldenburg type. Baqer's going to a solid strawberry roan with a dull red horn with the thick hide like armour going to be sorrel. They've decided on a stripe of light red on the face and that Baqer's battle scars will be lighter then the base colour, also crown of thorn like blades erupted around Baqer's fore hooves. Baqer's going to stand seventeen hands high with white mane and tail.

Ilom going to be another Yu'kara but unlike Baqer, he's going to be of the Percheron type. Ilom's a solid black Yu'kara, everything from his the thick armour like hide, mane and tail is going to be black. The horn is a steel grey colour with a three large blades jetting out of Ilom's back, along the spine. Ilom's going to stand to be sixteen point five hands high.

A mare of the Hackney type of Ki'souka named Inari was going to be standing around fifteen point one hands high. Inari's going to be silvery blue in colour with spots of black on her rump. Inari's horn is going to be sapphire colour and the hooves have navy blue strips running up and down.

Waseem's going to be of the Noriker type. Waseem's a bay with soft grey colour for his thick hide armour. Around the cream coloured horn were ringed with tiny thorn blades. The mane and tail were wavy and matched the horn's colour. Waseem stands sixteen point three hands high.

Then there were the twins Gaius and Gavan. Gavan is going to be of the Westphalian type while Gaius is going to be of the Oldenburg type. Gavan's colouring is going to be blackish blue with white spots, Gavan's horn is black as well as he's going to be standing sixteen point three hands high. Gaius is going to be totally white with his thick hide armour a blackish blue, Gaius's horn is also black and Gaius lacks blades like the other Yu'kara. Gaius stands sixteen point three hands high. They also had to include pictures of the two when they were colts since they're going to be the main characters.

Once they're done with the twins, they call it a day. He watches as Takato puts the coloured drawings in a folder, his friend picks up what's on the floor while he takes a look through Takato's DVD collection, which has grown by ten DVDs since they last hung out. Frowns as he reads one of the new titles names, Buso Rekin volume one and by it were volume two and three, then the last seven were of a show called Dragon Drive.

He then decides on the DVDs entitled Buso Rekin since he already kind of likes the summary of the show. "This any good?" He asks the goggle wearing Tamer. "It's slightly unsettling at some parts but other wise, yea, it's a good show." Takato says, he raises an eyebrow at his friend before they leave Takato's room.

They find Patamon and Guilmon watching a cooking show and they surrender the TV so they could watch Buso Rekin. Takato leaves to get some snacks as well as drinks, leaving him in total control of the remote. He goes through the bonus features; he has played both the textless beginning and ending by the time Takato returns. They settle into comfortable positions before he pushes play as their partners begin to devour the plate of bread and pastries.

V

With about two weeks to go, they still haven't found people to play the role of the twins, Gaius and Gavan. Ken got the role of Baqer, Tai got the role of Waseem, as Sora got the part of Inari, and Ilom's role goes to a Digidestine named Ryan Geldar. Although Kenta and Kazu got parts of comic relief for the two sides, something he couldn't help but think they deserve since they're perfect for the roles.

Oddly enough, a lot of people thought Takato and himself should try out for those roles, but neither Takato or him really feel like trying to get the two main leads. Takato just wanted to be a back ground character while he just doesn't want to be subjected to all the pressure.

He blinks as he rereads who's up next. He glances around as he tries to spot Kari but can't seem to find her. As Mimi shouts next, Kari enters with Rika; apparently they're going to give it a go. True, it doesn't matter that they're both girls; Kari had played a part of a soldier, a male soldier, before she ended up playing Kaylin.

Rika looks slightly smug while his girlfriend looks nervous. Soon enough they're running through their lines and much of Kari's discomfort fades, in the end; it's pretty easy to figure out who got the roles of the twins. There were about two try outs but after an hour of debate, Rika got the role of Gaius as Kari gets the part of Gavan.

He notices that Tai's just plain amused about all of this while Takato seems to be shrugging off his dismay, his own brother just looks amused as does Ken. The director, Yolei, seems to find whole thing to be humorous while most of the others that were gathered were in slight disbelief that the two male leads were now being played by two teenage girls.

"Congratulations, Kari and you too, Rika. You two get the parts of Gavan and Gaius." Mimi says in a cheerful voice and Mimi continues while some give her a blank look. "Next Saturday we'll be starting to get you use to your costume before we start filming." And then Ryo stands up to add, "Also, those volunteers willing to set up the temporary base camp will be expected on Wednesday around one o'clock pm to be at the site to help set it up. So, we'll see you then."

With that, people begin to drift off while some of the department leaders gather around for a quick meeting. He heads off towards Kari, wanting to congratulate her on acquiring one of the leads. He does notice that Renamon seems amused about what just happened, as does Gatomon.

-Rika

Truthfully, she hadn't expected to get the part of Gaius but she had and while she kept a calm look on her features, inside, she's trying not to panic since she did, after all, try out for the part so she shouldn't be trying to think of ways to get out of it. In the back of her mind, she can feel Renamon's amusement and tries to close the mental link between Renamon and herself since she didn't want Renamon knowing that she's panicking.

She meets Takato's eyes and finds herself gaining control over her panic. "Did Kari ever tell you that she played a soldier before landing the role of Kaylin?" Her boyfriend asks casually and somehow, that made her feel much better about playing a Yu'kara stallion. "Really? As far as I know, she hadn't mentioned it." She says in her regular tone.

"I should know, I had been in line ahead of her to get my Minotaur 'costume' while she was waiting to get dressed up as a soldier." Takato mentions with amusement flickering in his reddish brown eyes. She feels the edge of her lips turn upward as she begins to lead Takato out of the room.

"So, Yaoi gets you going too, huh?" She muses and is satisfied to hear a slight choking sound before Takato manages to squeak out, "Yaoi? You mean guy on guy action?" She couldn't keep her laughter in as she notices the look on Takato's face. Takato recovers and shakes his head; he manages to send her a scratchy look before she looks away from her boyfriend.

"So, where to now?" Takato asks her once they're out of the building. "You need to pick up Guilmon now?" She asks, wondering if they could go on a date even though they're currently in the Digidestine reality. "Not really. He's most likely enjoying his time in Primary Village and it's doubtful that anything harmful will happen while he's there." Takato informs her, she nods in agreement with her Goggle Head's thoughts on the matter.

Soon enough, they're on their way to the movie theatre to watch a movie that doesn't exist in their reality. Once they decided between three movie titles, Takato stops at the concession stand to grab some drinks for the two of them. While Takato buys the drinks, she heads in to get seats for the two of them. They have to wait ten minutes for the movie to start, while they were waiting, people slowly began to enter into the theatre, a murmur of chatter ends as the light dim and the credits begin to play. She settles herself into her seat as the first credit; her right hand seeks out Takato's left hand. She clutches his hand with a slight smile on her face.

To be continued …


	3. Clash of the Horned Ones part 3

Clash of the Horned Ones

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-Telepathy-

V Scene change and time change

- Different point of view

'- Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3

As they take a breather, she's really sore as she watches the other actors settle down under the shade of some rocks, they're clearly glad to be out of the glare of the sun. She flicks her tail and glances to where Takato's standing; she makes her way towards her boyfriend. Takato nods at her and takes out a pan and pours some water into it so she can have a drink.

"It sucks not having hands, huh?" Takato asks once she finishes her drink. -I can gouge you, you know.- She says in a slightly flat tone. "So very true, but then I'd be out of commission and spending time in the hospital ward Joe set up." Takato muses out loud.

She pokes him in the chest with her horn; Takato moves quickly and begins to stroke her neck, his fingers going through her mane. She blushes but it's not very visible with all the fur and such obscuring people's view. While she doesn't mind physical contact from her Goggle Head, it still is an odd experience while she's dressed up as Gaius.

She sighs softly as the goggle wearing Tamer's hands to a very sensitive spot around the base of her neck. It was Takato that pulls away and as he asks, "You want some more water? I think they're about ready to start up again." She doesn't trust her ability to speak so she just nods.

Once they're all done guzzling down the water from the pans, they got into their positions and wait for the signal to begin.

-Matt

He's still trying to figure out how he got roped into being an extra for this scene but then he should have expected something like these to happen since he hadn't dressed up for the last film they made. _'I knew Tai was up to something just by that odd glint in his eyes! TK definitely had his hand in it as well.'_ He thought bitterly.

He's slightly glad he's not dressed up as a Yu'kara though, while he's not vain, he didn't like the idea of looking like a war horse, especially either one of those bulky breeds. So he's 'costume' was of a Palomino type of the Westphalian breed under Ki'souka flag. He's horn is a gold in colour and he stands sixteen hands high.

He glances towards Cody who's dressed up as a rusty red Noriker type Yu'kara, Mimi who's dressed up as a bright red Hackney type Ki'souka, and Henry's dressed up as a white and black Percheron type Yu'kara. He asks the closest, which is Ken, -So, who talked you into dressing up?-

-Yolei.- Cody replies flatly. –You?- Cody asks and he replies, -Tai.- He glances over to Henry and the Tamer answers the unspoken question, -Jeri- He glances around and wonders, -Did Izzy get dressed up too? In his costume?- Henry shakes his head negatively. –Damn.- He says and Cody snorts his agreement with that statement.

-We're starting!- Takato shouts out towards their group. –Coming!- Mimi replies and the tawny Oldenburg type Yu'kara turns away from them. Mimi trots off towards the main group, he shares glances with the others and they move at a fast walk to catch up to Mimi.

-Tai

It's taken a grand total of two months, from the end of filming, of editing for the movie, Clash of the Horned Ones to be completed. They had a ton of stuff they can use for bonus features for when the DVD will be released. He couldn't help but grin in satisfaction at a job well done.

They were currently going through lists of movie theatres which could hold all those involved as well as those that most certainly will be invited to the showing. He knows his parents will make time to come to the showing, if only to met Takato's real parents. He glances towards Mimi and notices that she's nodding off; he shares a quick glance with Matt before they both move to take Mimi to the couch that's just a few feet away.

Soon enough, Matt and him were also bored and they decided to take a rest before they continue through their share of the lists of movie theatres. It's not long before they're each going through their text books so they're prepared for their next class. He sighs as he checks the time on his Digivice, he lets out a sigh as he takes out his cell phone to call his current girlfriend just to let her know where he's at and what he's up to.

V

He watches as his parents and Takato's birth parents mingle, they were outside of the theatre. From his view point, it seems as if the two sets of parents were getting along real well, from the laughter, he'd bet that they're getting along way too well. The original Digidestine and Davis and rest of that group were also beginning to show up with their families as they wait for Cody to bringing the film to the theatre.

They figured that Cody's a safe bet on getting into the theatre without anyone noticing. They've already heard rumours about people willing to pay just about anything to get their hands on the film so they're just being careful with how they deliver the finished produce to the theatre without people knowing.

So on seeing Cody, the Digidestine of Reliability and Knowledge gives him a sharp nod before the quiet young teen heads up to where the film machines were located with an employee leading him. He catches Mimi's, Matt's, and Izzy's eyes and gave them each a sharp nod when Cody comes back to the main floor, by then, all those that were coming had arrived and Mimi soon grabs their attention so to inform the crowd that the showing was about to begin.

He waves over to where Kari and Takato were talking, the pair jerk and wave at him before they began to follow the mob of people into the booked off theatre. He watches the pair as they vanish in the faceless mass of bodies, wondering just what they were chatting about before he heads towards the theatre before they closed the doors.

-TK

Soon enough they were seated and he's sitting with his dad for a change, his mom was a few rows in front of him, a space saved for Matt to join her. He also notices that Takato's not sitting with Rika, he's with his girlfriend and Kari's 'adopted' brother.

Soon enough everyone quiets down and Mimi and Tai were left standing at the front corner. Soon Tai begins to speak, "Welcome all of you to the premier of the movie we've spent a good many months filming and editing. Sadly, there are those of you who've helped make this film but were unable to make it to the premier. Anyway, if it weren't for all the support you've shown for our company, then we couldn't have made this great movie. So sit back and relax as our feature presentation begins." As soon Tai's finished, the room darkens and the two settle down in seats close to where they were standing.

V

-Paradise. That was the world we lived once, long ago, before the war of Blood. Herds were split into fractions as siblings spilt each other's blood, parents made outcaste their own children. In time, there became only two fractions that became known as the Yu'kara and the Ki'souka.- Baqer of the Grey Sand Yu'kara says to those foals gathered around, all hang on his every word. Baqer continues, -In time, the two fractions began to develop distinctive features other then just the single horn that graces our brow. The Yu'kara began to grow thick hide as armour, they grew more muscular, and even grew extra horns that became as sharp as a Ferin's middle claw. The Ki'souka leaned in the direction of lighter colours, lighter body types, and even gained some new coat patterns.-

Baqer noticed Waseem looking off towards the boarder between the Grey Sand and Oak Cloud boarder land where a storm was brewing. He finishes the tale of beginnings. –No one knows what began the argument that forced our great and honoured ancestors down the path they followed, all we know is that it happened and the land was divided into Yu'kara territory and Ki'souka range. Now, can anyone tell me which herd of Ki'souka lies west of here?- He asks the young foals, he sighs mentally as Waseem seems to have vanished from his sight.

'_Don't do anything foolish, Waseem. Good health on you, my friend.'_ Baqer thinks to himself as he hopes that Waseem doesn't stir up the already rising tensions that were once more beginning to arise between the two 'cousins.'

V

Inari paces as she waits for her beloved. The young Ki'souka's head perks up as the Yu'kara walks into the grove that's been their meeting point for about three years now. –Waseem!- The sapphire blue Ki'souka says in relief. The bay coloured Waseem nudges her in the shoulder as the Yu'kara says, -I'm sorry for making you wait, beloved but there was a messenger from the Bone Hill herd. It seems that Ilom still hopes to rally the surrounding Yu'kara herds under his war banner.-

Inari sighs on hearing this; she had once tried to talk with her mother, Layan about her first meeting with Waseem only for her mother to forbid her from trying to keep in contact with the young Yu'kara male who perked her interest. It hadn't taken Inari long to figure out that her mother's opinion was also the herd's opinion, the young female Ki'souka had been rebellious at the time and had therefore kept seeing the young Yu'kara in secret.

Inari never regretted keeping in contact with Waseem, she's learnt so much from the bay Yu'kara, like how the herd structure of Waseem's herd was common practice as well as about the Fire's Blessing that the Yu'kara foals go through when they're three years of age. Inari couldn't believe how organised the Yu'kara were, it made the herd structure of the Ki'souka look like a free-for-all since they don't really elect a herd head like the Yu'kara or gather up the foals for them to learn their history.

Sure Ki'souka foals do learn their history, but that's usually after they receive Water's Blessing when they're five years old, but they tend to learn it from their parents or grandparents. Those the stories vary between families since some details were added, altered, or dropped. Inari learnt a great deal of Yu'kara history, especially the herd history of the Yu'kara herd called the Grey Sand. Who are the Oak Cloud herd's closest Yu'kara neighbours to the east.

-Why did you wish to meet so soon? Is something wrong?- Waseem asks her softly and Inari's eyes warm as the young Ki'souka stares at the bay coloured Yu'kara with grey armour like hide. –You're going to be a father, beloved.- Inari informs the heavy built Yu'kara. Waseem stares at the sapphire coloured Ki'souka, clearly speechless about this revelation.

-Truly? When did you find out that you're…?- Waseem asks as the male Yu'kara stands to Inari's left side in a supportive manner. –I had visited healer Cael a few days ago. I hadn't been feeling so good and I thought I might have come down with something. As it turns out, I was pregnant with our foal.- Inari says softly, a warm feeling spreads through her whole being at Waseem's reaction to her carrying there foal. _'I'm so lucky.'_ She thinks contently.

V

Ilom of the Bone Hill herd studies Vox, is an off white male Yu'kara that lacks the usual extra horn blades that Yu'kara are famous for. Vox's weedy looking and is on the small side, about fifteen hands tall. Vox's herd had been Marching Plains, they had been killed by a gang of Daicher, flying carnivores that were half his size but were longer in the body then him.

The experience had changed Vox; the Yu'kara changed his name and seems to have the ability to see through the veils that hide the threads of the future. Even now, Ilom doesn't know why Vox came to him, only that according to Vox, something very important is about to happen and it some how involves not just the Yu'kara race, but also their Ki'souka cousins as well.

-Are you sure that it centers around the Grey Sand herd? My informants haven't noticed anything of interest going on with that herd.- Ilom asks Vox once again. His second in command and younger sister, Saba, was currently standing to his left about two feet away from the black Yu'kara's flank.

Vox seems to sigh, something that the off white male seems to be doing a lot of since he keeps bringing this up. –I'm sure. Just because your informants can't find anything amiss doesn't mean that something isn't amiss.- Vox says in a tired tone.

V

He grins; Izzy did a really great job of playing the Yu'kara Seer. Oddly enough, Yolei got the part of Saba. He had to admit, it's nice to see Izzy all dressed up and doing more then sitting behind the scenes. Soon enough, the scene changes and Rika and Kari's parts were coming up.

V

Gavan watches as his twin brother walks boldly out towards the pond that's at the center of the grove. The elder twin watches Gaius, his younger brother, pauses by the pond and begins to take a drink from the pond on Yu'kara land.

Suddenly a pair of Yu'kara arrives on the scene, the elder twin steps back in hopes of hiding in the shadows of the bushes that were growing around the water source. Gaius's head shot up from the water's surface and Gavan's younger brother is now staring at the pair of Yu'kara that have arrived by the grove. One of the Yu'kara seems to perk on seeing Gaius while the other seems to sigh tiredly.

-Why does it seem that the foals, especially the colts, have come up with a new game? And why is that game centers around going off on their own and heading towards the boarder between Ki'souka territory and Yu'kara plot land?- The brown and bay coloured Yu'kara asks his comrade. -I think it's to show who's not a 'yellow' coat.- The grey and bay coloured Yu'kara says, Gavan notices the odd crown of spikes circling the horn on this Yu'kara's forehead.

The brown and bay coloured Yu'kara one says to his younger brother, -Time to get back to your parents, young one.- Gavan just blinks from his hiding place, kind of stunned at the way their acting. It was almost like they weren't the foal killers his grandparents had made them out to be. –But…- Gaius says but the other male Yu'kara interrupts him by saying, -I'm sure you'd like to see your mother again, but come along. I'll take you back to main herd.- The Yu'kara nudges his younger brother's flank and in the end, his twin is on his way with the two Yu'kara.

It takes quite a few minutes before Gavan finally recovers and begins to head back to his herd, to his mother. He doesn't relish having to inform Inari, his mother, about why Gaius didn't come back with him. Gavan prays for his younger brother's safety.

V

Waseem studies the white and black colt, it had been about eight months since he last spoken with Inari but he remembers that she mentioned that they had twin colts with white and black colouring. Waseem could smell Inari's scent on this colt and he had a sinking feeling that the colt's brother had also been at the scene, just hidden away from sight.

While the grey and bay coloured Yu'kara does feel bad for separating the twins, he also wanted to get to know at least one of his children. Fearghus was currently walking about ten feet ahead of him and his son. Waseem asks, -What's your name?- The miserable looking colt jerks his head and sends a glare his way. –What's it to you?- The colt asks, in a cold tone.

-You're mother, is she's Inari of the Oak Cloud?- He asks, the colt stumbles slightly in surprise. –What's it to you?- The white and black colt demands. –It means that I'm your father. My name, by the way, is Waseem.- He informs the colt, very much amused as the colt tips over a rock and falls face first onto the ground.

Fearghus calls out, -Is everything alright back there?- Waseem shouts out, -He's just tripped on a rock. He's fine.-

He then proceeds to help the colt to get up by nudging the colt's side. Soon they're once more walking towards the herd that's currently made up of Grey Sand, Star Point, and Jade River. There are a few minor herds that would join up for a few days before leaving, so there's always an influx of Yu'kara passing through the traditional lands belonging to Grey Sand herd.

-I'm Gaius.- The white and black colt says. –We'll see if we can't get you back to your mother's herd, but for now, I'll leave you with Baqer since they'll be looking for your parents.- Waseem says to his son, Gaius sighs softly as the herd made up of three clans begins to appear not far off from their position.

V

Baqer studies the latest colt to be brought into the herd. The colt named Gaius gives him a steady look, clearly trying to hide his nervousness and unease. The reddish coloured Yu'kara sighs mentally as he wonders just what the world is coming to as he looks towards the rest of the foals that were his charges until their parents come to claim them. –So, what kind of story do you want to hear next?- Baqer asks the group before him, bracing himself for the multiple answers that's sure to follow that simple question.

To be continued …


	4. Clash of the Horned Ones part 4

Clash of the Horned Ones

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-Telepathy-

V Scene change and time change

- Different point of view

'- Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4

Baird watches as Gavan, or was it Gaius, arrives without his twin. The golden coloured Ki'souka always had a soft spot for Inari, the twin's mother and Baird had wondered just who it was that Inari had allowed to sire her children. Baird already knew that some of the foals had taken to teasing Gavan and Gaius about the lack of a father figure in their lives, which he was willing to fill if he ever gets the nerve to ask Inari to be his mate.

-Baird!- Gavan says, clearly surprise to find him there. –Gavan.- Baird replies, mimicking Gavan's surprised tone. –Where's Gaius?- He asks the elder twin, Gavan dips his head and looks away. –Come along, I'll walk with you to your mother.- The golden and blue Ki'souka says gently and heads towards Inari's usual spot.

V

Inari waits nervously in the grove that's Waseem and her's usual meeting place. She snaps her head as she watches Waseem come through the bushes with their youngest child. –Mom!- Gaius shouts and races up to the blue Ki'souka. –Gaius!- Inari says and nuzzles the colt.

-Waseem.- Inari says with warmth and affection, clearly startling her son. –You mean he really is my… Gavan's and mine…- Gaius says, clearly unable to really finish his sentence. She sighs and nudges Gaius in the shoulder. –Waseem is Gavan's and your father. I couldn't tell you since both Ki'souka and Yu'kara would most likely outcast the both of you at the very least. These are dangerous times, not that our herd knows of it. I wanted you two to be safe.- Inari informs her son gently, looking sadly down at her child.

-I know, old Baqer of the Grey Sands spoke of why three herds of the Yu'kara were living together. Why are the Yu'kara so much more organised then the Ki'souka? I mean, grandfather spoke of the Yu'kara as if they're always fighting among themselves for food, water, and territory but I saw no evidence while I was with them.- Gaius says.

It was Waseem that answered, -There once was a tradition, which is no longer in use, that called for all the Yukara to gather together every ten years and call for the herds to fight to keep their ranging lands. Many dead in said contests, it wasn't until a female Yu'kara by the name of Pegeen that put a stop to the brutal tradition. Her form of protest was simply not participating in the contest; it wasn't until eight other herds began to follow her did the leader of the most powerful herd challenged her to combat in order to decide whether or not to follow the age old tradition. Pegeen won the challenge and instead of killing the male, whose name was Zubin, she wanted him as her mate. So during the fight, the pair had exchanged words and when Pegeen gained the upper hand, she gave him a choice, to die or to join her. Zubin had most likely became intrigued by the female that had not only been able to match him in battle but also to beat him. So he accepted her terms and the tradition was put to rest about two hundred years ago.-

Inari smiles slightly, she couldn't help but like the ending of the story. She couldn't help but see a bit of Waseem and herself in that story. Inari sighs and looks at her son once more, regret about what she's about to say almost broke her heart. –Gaius, you'll have to remain with your father. If you just show up suddenly, people will begin to ask questions and the truth will be revealed about Waseem and mine relationship.- Gaius nods weakly as what she said sinks in.

-Can I visit?- Gaius asks, looking hopefully at her. –I'd be disappointed if you didn't.- Inari informs her son. Waseem snorts in amusement and soon they're going their separate ways, heading back to their herds.

V

Gaius felt nervous as he stood on the fringes of his age group. They were about to received Fire's Blessing. He had journeyed here with his father and the others that were his age group. Over time, they had also hooked up with other herds headed to Mount Quiv'tai, the sacred mount that's said to have a heart of fire beating under all of that rock and dirt.

The sacred mountain is three moons away from the boarder lands that is his birth place. They only break during midday to graze; the foals remain in the middle while the adults remain on the outside of the group, alert to any beasts attempting to prey upon them. He knows that there's going to be an attack in one form or another as a colt from the White Path Herd, his name is Fell had heard the adults talk about a huge pride of Jivaes following their group. Gaius isn't surprised, before they set out; Waseem had told them point blank that this trip was going to be full of danger from not just the traditional beasts that prey upon them, but migrating hunters that time their travels to coincide with the pilgrimages to Mount Quiv'tai that happens every year.

Vocal battle cries erupt from the northern part of the group, it wasn't a pride of Jivaes, it was a gang of Daicher that was the cause of the problem. Many of the foals began to panic and attempt to flee away from where the flying hunters were currently sighted. He snorts but glances around in hopes of locating some of those foals he's come to consider his friends. It's not long before all of the foals were fleeing the safety of the group, by passing the adults that were trying to maintain order but failing miserably.

Sadly, since the Daicher were fliers, there wasn't much the adults could do to keep the damage in check as he flinches as a filly was picked up by a Daicher a few feet away from him. He shivers slightly as he's forced to flow with the mob; it was easier to go with the flow then to attempt to make a stand.

He calls out a warning as he notices a grey and red Jivae beginning to pace the mob of fleeing foals to his far right. As if on cue, the rest of the huge pride of feline Jivae attacks the edge of the fleeing group. He doesn't know if it's a blessing that he can't hear the dieing foals' screams or not.

In the end, he just attempts to survive this. Images of his twin, Gavan, emerge from the depths of his mind. Thinking about his elder brother calms him slightly as he begins to weave through the group in hopes of trying to get to the front to try and stop them from running about in blinded panic.

V

Waseem sighs as he remembers spotting Gaius with the first group of foals that they had found once the Daicher and Jivae. He's relieved that he doesn't have to inform Inari that one of their children were dead. While he hadn't been able to reassure his son, he was content to continue on searching for other such groups since by now, the fleeing mob of foals had time to regain their thoughts and had hopefully staying put.

Waseem studies the position of the moon; exhaustion and soreness were making him wish he can just call it a night and head back to the safety of the group so he can recover from what happened today. Nirg of the White Path and Tea of the Red Water were lagging behind him, not that he really blames the pair since this was their first time as escorts, it's his fourth time.

-How much longer are we going to keep searching for?- Tea asks as she stops. –Not until morning.- The elder Yu'kara informs the pair. Nirg lowers his head, clearly sharing the Tea's opinion. –It also means we don't get guard duty tomorrow.- He adds and that perks the pair up conservable.

Soon enough the pair seem to have tapped into their 'second' wind and were impatient to continue looking for more groups of foals. With a slight smile on his muzzle, he follows the pair at a steady pace. Amusement sparkles from his eyes.

V

Ilom watches the vast group of three year olds gathered at the start of the path that leads to the fire alter that has been carved by their fore-sires, even the path has been worn down by countless hooves treading upon it. It was a right for all Yu'kara for all three year olds to come, climb the path, and begin their journey in life as an adult, leaving their childhood behind them.

Vox stands to his right as his second in command, Saba stands to his left. They're waiting for the sun to rise, for it is then that the embers will light up for the ceremony to begin. Slowly but surely, the sun creeps up from over the horizon, red clouds marking the beginnings of the day.

Soon the embers were lit, marking now the beginning of the ceremony. The foals all seem to be looking at each other, most unwilling to be the first to under go the rite. In time a bold white and black colt comes to ahead, Ilom notes that the colt glances to an adult, most likely the father of the bold youth.

The colt proceeds cautiously climbs the rocky path, the colts ears were more often then not lying flat on his skull, a sign of the colts determination. –He has the makings of a fine warrior, that one. Clearly as nervous to be the first, but doesn't let that stand in his way. He's a credit to his herd, to his line.- Vox murmurs softly to him. –Indeed.- The black Yu'kara replies, wholly agreeing with what the Seer had said about the colt making his way to the alter at the end of the path.

The colt pauses at the top, bends down and sniffs the ember, only jerking back when they flare up a tiny bit. The colt then steps into the center of the pile of ashes and ember. As the embers flare up once more, the colt rears up and lets out a verbal cry of astonishment. As the flare fades, the colt now has the classic armour hide that's a classic mark of a Yu'kara, meaning that the youth has received Fire's Blessing.

The young Yu'kara heads down the path once more, only diverging to the right at the end so he doesn't intermingle with the foals. Soon enough, the foals begin to line up as the second Yu'kara foal begins to climb the steps to get to the alter at the top of the steps. It'll mostly take the whole day, maybe a bit into the night, before all the foals have under gone this ceremony marking their ascent into adult hood.

He watches as foals from his own herd climb the steps to receive Fire's Blessing, he watches in pride as nephews and nieces were marked by the flaming alter. In the end, this makes it worth all it, all of the dangers that they encounter along the way to Mount Quiv'tai and the inconvenience of traveling in huge groups.

V

Gavan paused as he felt… something coming from a distant part of him. He blinks off into the distance, towards the boarder between Ki'Souka and Yu'Kara lands. Pangs of regret as his thoughts turn to his missing twin brother. Despite everything to the contrary, he really did expect to see his brother in front of him, very much alive. Gavan turns away and begins to graze once more.

V

Pressure had been accumulating within Mount Quiv'tai and its sibling volcanoes over the pass three hundred years. The Yu'kara have noted an slight increase of Earth shakes, since they prefer to live close to the inactive volcanoes, but not too close since they believe that they're sacred sites.

So when Mount Kugi'tai began to smoke, the two locate herds took notice. Then Mount Notr'tai and it's twin, Mount Motr'tai began to not only smoke, but began to erupt, the three locate herds had only stared dumbly at the two Mounts before they fled with molten began to reach their grazing lands.

Some herds argued about which way to travel, though in the end, the herds split apart as they traveled either east or west of their traditional lands. Violent earth shakes continue to herald the news that change was on its way, long before the distant herds of Yu'kara brought the startling news of their sacred fire mounts began to spout smoke, dust, and rocks.

Mount Quiv'tai's heart was stirring and unlike its relatives, its eruption wasn't herald by smoke, but by a minor shake an hour before it's molten core bursts through the rock and ash at the mouth of the volcano.

V

Baird studies the pair of youths that have recently encountered a group of Yu'kara grazing on their lands. –You did the right thing by not confronting them. They could have easily have killed you if you had. Go, get visit the healer and then get some rest. You did well, Eamon. Raimi.- He informs the pair. The soft blue Ki'souka named Eamon nods as the striped Ki'souka named Raimi heads off with Eamon following behind.

'_That's the fifth time this day that someone has stumbled upon a group of Yu'kara grazing on our lands. This does not bold well, not at all.'_ The golden chestnut coloured Ki'souka ponders to himself. He decides to call a meeting to decide what to do now that the Yu'kara were trying to hustle them off their traditional grazing lands.

V

Gavan was currently following this tugging coming from within him. He's now eight years old, he's already received Water's Blessing three years previously. The full grown Ki'souka can still remember it like it happened yesterday.

'-

The spring seems to glow a subtle but shifting color that goes from being a soft spring green and to a soft blue. There wasn't even a full moon out tonight as Gavan watches foal after foal journey up to the spring to receive Water's Blessing. Each foal would glow slightly as the spring surges at each blessing, their coat and horns shimmer before the spring returns to normal.

The colt's musings were cut short as it's his turn to step up. The white and black colt wades out to the spring once Jiro steps out of the way to stand with the others that were now considered young adults, clearing the path for him. As the young Ki'souka walks up to the spring, a bundle of emotions flash within him, though the most dominate feelings were nervousness and pride.

Once the white and black colt reaches the spring, Gavan turns around and jerks slightly as the spring's surges upwards. The water touches him and he glows slightly before the spring returns to normal. Gavan notices his mother's looks of pride that also seems to have a touch of sorrow, with a peg of regret, he realises that his brother should be here tonight to also receive Water's Blessing…

'-

Gavan sighs, he had spoken with his mother about it and Inari had said that she was sad that neither his father nor brother had been there to see him receive his blessing. Gavan hadn't really known what to say to that, so he had kept quiet.

-Gavan?- A soft and faintly familiar voice asks. The white and black Ki'souka snaps out of his thoughts as he jerks his head up, ears jerking forward. –Gaius? Is that you?- The elder twin asks as a white and black being steps out from behind a tree. –It's been a while, hasn't it Gavan?- The adult Yu'kara says, Gavan can't help but stare at the Yu'kara that's his younger brother.

-How?- The adult Ki'souka asks once he finds his voice. –Mother never told you about our father, did she?- Gaius pauses slightly before continuing. -I guess not. Our father is Waseem of the Grey Sand herd, which makes us half breeds. It's kind of funny, if you think about it. We were pretty identical when we were younger and now look at us, eh? We're as different as can be, you taking after our mother as I take after our father.-

He merrily gawks at his younger brother, despite what his head says on the matter, his very soul told him this was his other half of his soul, his younger brother that had been taken by that Yu'kara patrol so long ago. –I thought they killed you.- Gavan says softly. –Funny thing, it's pretty hard to tell a Yu'kara foal from a Ki'souka foal, it also helped that there was an influx of Yu'kara herds moving about Grey Sand grazing lands. So I pretty much fit right in, once I got over the differences between the two herds and the shock of learning who our father is.- Gaius informs him.

-Why are Yu'kara invading Ki'souka lands?- Gavan asks, changing the subject. –You've felt the earth shakes?- His twin asks and he nods slightly. –The sacred mountains are releasing their fire; it's displaced many herds from their ancestral homes, Gavan. The pressure to move west, away from the flaming mountains is forcing the Yu'kara out of what's traditionally their territory and into the sparsely populated lands of the Ki'souka. I can only guess how the Ki'souka will react to this, but I pray that it's not violently. 'Cause trust me when I tell you this, brother, they're more then prepared for resistance from the Ki'souka. Some are even eager for an excuse to pick a fight with their colourful 'cousins.'- Gaius says seriously.

Gavan asks, -Is there anything we can do to keep it from going that far?- Gaius shrugs his armoured hided shoulders ever so slightly. –I know our father's attempting to convince the Yu'kara herds to at least try and explain what's going on with the Ki'souka.- Gaius tells him and he can only prays that the father he's never met is capable of following through with that course of action.

Soon enough, Gaius asks what it was like to receive Water's Blessing. Gavan was only too glad to tell his twin as long as Gaius was willing to tell him about the Yu'kara equivalent to Water's Blessing.

To be continued …


	5. Clash of the Horned Ones part 5

Clash of the Horned Ones

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-Telepathy-

V Scene change and time change

- Different point of view

'- Flash back

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Chapter 5

Baqer studies the pacing Waseem as the younger Yu'kara worries over weather or not anyone is going to listen to what the bay coloured Yu'kara had to say. –Calm down, Waseem. If you can't control your passions and worries then they won't heed your advice. Take firm hold of your beliefs and relax!- The elder red coloured Yu'kara tells the younger Yu'kara sharply.

Waseem looks rebellious but does pause in his pacing and attempts to calm down by taking deep and slow breathes. As the leaders from the other herds began to arrive, Waseem had calmed down and had taken to standing by him. The leader of the Grey Sands, a female Yu'kara that's a dark brown colour with black hide armour by the name of Dalila takes her place before Waseem and Baqer, marking them as members of her herd.

Baqer nods to Rabia of the Night Grass herd, who's also the mother of his children. One of their sons were being groomed to take over the leadership of the Night Grass herd, he believes that the tawny Yu'kara's name is Kabili. Rabia sends a warm look towards him before settling into a stance to wait for Ilom to arrive.

-Takato

He sighs, he couldn't believe that the tawny Yu'kara on scene was him, but he knew it was. He glances to his parents, both sets of them; he didn't really pay much attention to this up coming part since he was there for the eight times they had done this particular scene. The funny part was, the guy that was suppose to pay Kabili ended up getting injury while goofing off with a friend of his. The guy, the guy's escapes him, ended up with a broken wrist while the friend ended up with a nasty bump on his head.

He looks back up as an action scene comes up. He grins slightly, knowing that Guilmon's part is coming up.

V

Baird studies the few warriors that were willing to follow his commands to the letter. While he's uneasy about sending out assassins under the agreement of a truce, he had hopes that without their leader, this Ilom, they'll fight among themselves over filling Ilom's place that they'll be able to push the fighting herds of Yu'kara out of their lands.

As luck would have it, the Yu'kara had asked for a meeting to 'explain' why they're invading their territory. Not that he believes a single word out of their dam mouths but it does give him the opportunity to try and assassinate Ilom.

As they continue to discus the finer details of the plan, they didn't notice a bright red colt with black sock listening in. The colt was stunned on hearing what the adults were planning to do under a truce. That's how Inari found Qamar, the bright red colt, the son of her elder sister. –Aunty Inari! Something bad is going to happen tomorrow…- Qamar says as the colt seeks physical comfort from the mother of Gavan and Gaius.

V

He grins before the scene changes, he feels proud that his partner had managed to land that particular role since he knew that Guilmon really wanted to be a part of the film, as in get dressed up and get on the big screen. The only other Digimon that had wanted to 'play dress up' had been Calumon, and oddly enough, Calumon had wanted to join Guilmon in 'playing dress up.' Sadly, they couldn't find a part for the little Digimon, but they had promised that they'll have one for him in the next film, something TK's has a few ideas for.

V

Ilom studies the group walking towards the meeting spot. Vox seems to grow stiff as the group continues to come towards them, he glances at his sister and second in command, but she doesn't seem to know what's wrong with the Seer. –I don't like the looks of these, 'diplomats.'- Jamal of Ice Rain, a herd that use to range in high mountain country until the earth shakes began to alter the rock face of that mountain range.

-This will not end well.- Baqer of the Grey Sand muses softly as the history keep of that herd. –You think?- Jamal says sarcastically. He stomps his left hoof on the ground to restore order among the Yu'kara. They quiet it down and soon the Ki'souka were about seven feet away.

-Well, well, well, it seems your messenger spoke truly. So what lies do you want to say now?- A young green coloured male Ki'souka snarls as the Ki'souka poses threateningly. Ilom's amused that they're trying to look aggressive. –I am Ilom of the Bone Hill herd. And who might you be?- The black Yu'kara asks.

-You're killer!- The green coloured Ki'souka shouts and they Ki'souka charge forth. He snorts and skilfully dodges their lousy attempts of attacking. Suddenly a group of Ki'souka appear and the white and black Ki'souka catches his eye, there's something about that Ki'souka that reminds him of a Yu'kara by the name of Gaius.

-What are you doing, Jilf! We're suppose to be talking with them, not trying to kill them!- The white and black Ki'souka snaps at the group. The white and black Ki'souka moves between them and the would-be-assassins. –Agreed, Gavan. Just why were you trying to prove, Jilf? The Yu'kara's are masters of combat, it's why they have their armour and extra blades jetting out of their bodies.- An elder Ki'souka says gravely, causing the group of young Ki'souka to look guiltily away.

-We were only following Baird's instructions…- One of the Ki'souka begins to say, the pale blue one with golden spots around the rump. –And who says he speaks for us all? I had Inari come with young Qamar to inform me of this breech in conduct. I had hoped that they were wrong, but it seems that I was mistaken. Leave, you'll be dealt with later tonight.- The elder commands the group.

Ilom watches as the group leaves, but not before giving them scratchy looks. He snorts in amusement and Vox seems to relax slightly, but now is studying the one called Gavan. –I am elder Yahir of the Oak Cloud. I apologise for Jilf's actions. They will be punished, you can be sure.- Yahir says and he repeats himself, -I am Ilom of the Bone Hill herd. It has been decided that we were to met with you in order to explain why we have been invading your lands.- The other Ki'souka perk up at this, clearly curious to find out the reason behind their actions.

Soon enough he explains everything, about the sacred mountains erupting and how it's pushed the Yu'kara out of their traditional lands. Yahir and many look alert to learn that fire can come out of certain kinds of mountains and that this also is responsible for all of the earth shakes. He could tell that this troubles Yahir since the Ki'souka weren't aware of this phenomena until now, which reminds him that though they're cousins, they have very little communication going on between them.

Just as they're about to leave, Vox asks Gavan, -Are you the brother of Gaius of the Grey Sand herd?- Everyone froze and Gavan looks guilty. –My mother is Inari of the Oak Cloud and my father is Waseem of the Grey Sand herd. I'm the elder brother of Gaius of the Grey Sand.- Gavan says, he couldn't help it as his jaw drop, Baqer makes a verbal sound of disbelief.

'_Ok, I now believe Vox was correct when he said something important was going on that involves not only Yu'kara, but also the Ki'souka.'_ Ilom thinks as he remembers the white and black colt that had been the first of his generation to take the first steps towards adult hood. It also makes him wonder just how distantly related they really were, since it seems that a Ki'souka can have children whose sire was a Yu'kara.

-Suzie

The movie ended with Waseem and Inari watching their daughter, which had been her, play with her niece and nephew. Before the credits began, the scene changes Baqer does another narration as a group of flying horses make their appearance as they're flying over the twin volcanoes, indicating that if there's a sequel, the flying horses will have starring roles in the next picture.

Music begins to play and there's a window that shows foals playing and generally goofing off as the list of names appear to the opposite side of the screen where the box showing Yu'kara and Ki'souka interacting. She sighs and wishes that Lopmon was here for her to hold and to chat with as her parents and elder siblings begin chatting with their neighbours.

-TK

By the time he makes it out of the theatre, his back aches from all of the friendly slaps he's received from people that had enjoyed the movie. While the ending hadn't ended very exciting, the hints of a sequel were there and hopefully that makes up for the lack of an exciting ending. He rotates his shoulder blades, sighing heavily as he feels an increase of aches as he does so.

He wonders what kind of an article was already in progress as he glances at his mother's expression. _'Hopefully, it'll down play the plot.'_ He prays, he does know that they'll going to be busy for the next little while with managing orders of DVDs and even orders of a CD featuring music from the movie.

'_I just hope that the next movie we do, it'll have a more exciting ending.'_ He thinks, already dreading the idea of people pressing him for movie scripts featuring certain elements and themes.

To Readers:

So ends Clash of the Horned Ones. It's June the eighth, or is it June the ninth? It is 12:50 am right now, so I guess its Saturday June the ninth, 2007. For better or for worse, you got a sequel of Twisting Paths of Twilight and it might be added to at a future date.

My poll for that gryphon name is still open, just a little reminder.

Here's some bonus material that's incomplete, I hope you enjoy it!

**Tale of Spirt Child**

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

:-P Scene change and time change

/'/--/'/ Different point of view

CxxD Flash back

He sighs as he pushes his blankets off of him. He shivers slightly, as he quickly grabs his gloves, jacket, and boots. He rolls up his bed furs and sets them to the side. He glances around his tiny home; it had taken him weeks to learn how to make his own tent, since nobody cares about his welfare.

He stands up on the leather covered floor of his mini tipi. He has over the four years he's lived alone; he had continue to add old strips of leather on top of pervious layers of leather strips he's placed on the ground. Oddly enough, this helps keep the floor slightly warmer then it usually is for normal tipis.

He grabs his homemade bow, arrows, and his pouch which contains his fire starter kit and flint knives he's made during the winter storms. His eyes fall to the few candles that he's been able to get his hands on, those that owned them previously had decided they were junk and had left them by the rock outcropping a few miles north of where his tribe camps in the summer time.

Currently, he's the only one living in the area, the rest of his tribe had left for their wintering grounds, some families had broken off from the main body to head to their family wintering sites. Nobody cares that he remains in the spring and summer area of the tribe, they just expect him to fend for himself and to stay out of sight like the outcaste he is.

He snorts lightly at the thought. He finishes tying his belt now that he finishes adding his quiver of wooden arrow and his pouch. He pulls the hood up and ties it so he doesn't have to worry about it being blow back down. He once more picks up his bow and unties the portal to get out of his tent like tipi.

He glances eastward to see if the sun has risen. He then looks up and finds some bright stars still in the sky. He shakes himself and remembers to turn about and retie the portal. He then sets out through the frost covered forest, his feet drop into the snow covered ground, lucky for him the snow isn't as deep as it had been a few days ago. He expects that by the next lunar cycle, winter will have one last big storm before retreating before the incoming spring.

He heads off to where he last spotted a herd of deer, he may or may not make a kill today, but at least he'll have something to do other then sitting in his tipi for hours on end. _'I wouldn't mind some fresh meat instead of that dry stuff I made last summer and autumn. I can't wait to taste fruit and berries again. I might just catch a fish too.'_ He thinks to himself as he plows through the snow covered ground.

He glances upward as he hears bird cries. He spots a few crows perched on some of the trees, he also notices that dawn is approaching as he notices the light blue clouds in the east, a sure sign of the approaching dawn. He glances around the frozen forest and notices that he's within a few feet of the place he last saw the small herd of deer.

He sniffs the chilly air; he wipes his nose after breathing in more deeply. He notices that his gloved hand has some moister on it. He shakes his head and again sniffs the air. _'Times like these I wish I had some canine about to help me track.'_ He thinks as he takes his time to judge in which direction the wind is blowing from.

He creeps slowly forward, his eyes peeled on the ground before him. Hoof tracks litter the small clearing, tree bark has been striped up to about five to six feet in height, and he sighs as he notices the tracks of some Horix, a canine that stands about five feet tall and is six feet in length, a beast that towers over its slightly smaller Jerix cousin.

He shakes his head as his shoulder sag in disappointment. He knows that if Horix were involved then the deer herd is long gone and most likely are being hounded by the Horix whose tracks he can clearly see in the snow around the clearing and in it. He shivers slightly and turns to the west to where he has lied down his traps. He shoulders his bow, doubting that he'll use it now that the herd of deer has moved on.

:-P

He pokes the fire that's a three feet from his small tipi. He sighs and wonders, briefly, where his tribe is since they have yet to arrive now that spring has come. He glances over at the few Kirenth, an herbivore creature that seems to look like a cross between a rabbit and a goat.

Kirenth stand around four feet tall and have long ears that remind one of a rabbit. A pair of horns jet out of the beast's head for about ten inches. The Kirenth tail is about two inches long and its tail fur is very soft and has a slow rate of absorption, which makes it's highly prized for paint brushes.

Kirenth don't have hooves but three large toes with blunt claws. The back legs are about three inches longer then their forelegs. Kirenth were nomadic, they sometimes skip areas for a few seasons and then they'll just up and decide to return. Kirenth were also like rabbits in the fact that their coats alter for the change in season, whitish grey in winter and tawny gold for spring, summer, and autumn. The thickness of the coat also changes for the seasons, thin and coarse during the warm seasons and then in winter, soft, fluffy, and silky.

He looks away from his kills; he glances at the skins he has drying on frames that are leaning against his bark and hide tipi. He's currently cutting strips of meat off one of the Kirenth, he places his current strip into a pot that has some broth that contains herbs, salt, and water. He waits for about a hundred heartbeats before spearing the meat out of the blow and onto the rack that contains other strips of meat.

He continues this, though he pokes the fire a few times to make sure that his soup remains warm. He takes a long deep breath before sighing; he enjoys the scent of the cooking soup. His stomach rumbles after some time, he stops and gets up off the covered ground that he's using to keep the corpse from getting dirty.

He picks up a batty old clay bowl and a wooden spoon. He begins to fill his bowl up once he takes off the cover. Once it's full, he places the lid back on and places the pot slightly closer to the fire to keep it warm. He sits down by the fire and begins to eat his soup.

He drains it in one gulp once it's cool enough. He then gets up and fills his bowl up once more. He savours the flavouring of the soup. He sighs once he's eaten his fill, he then places the dirty bowl and spoon on the ground, and he makes a mental note to head to the river when the sun sets.

As he returns to cutting strips of meat and arranging the meat on a rack. Once the rack is full, he picks it up and takes it to one of the bark smoke houses he has set up to dry the meat as well as keep it away from savaging beasts and birds. He moves to the pile of waiting wooden racks, he picks one and once more sets it down by the bowl where the meat is floating in.

As he finishes off with his last corpse, he glances up as a flock of crows fly up from the forest south of his position. He sighs and swipes his hands on the ground covering before getting up. He walks to where his newly created spear is resting and picks it up. He walks southeast of his little clearing.

He glides through the forest; he carefully judges the layout of the forest floor before stalking through the forest. He pauses and crouches down as he hears something a few feet off to his left. He waits patiently and is rewarded when a voice calls out to its companions.

He listens as about four others make their way to the spot before him. "I don't see why we need to be this cautious, it's all alone and nobody's around to stop us from killing it." A male voice snarls. "Be that as it may, we shouldn't take any chances just because it's a Gathering year. Who knows which tribes maybe sniffing around our territory this year while our whole tribe is gathered together?" Another voice says in a calming tone.

He stiffens and slowly turns his head to the right, he holds his breath as he notices the crouched Gel'raw, the feline beast is tensing, which means that the slightly maned feline is getting ready to pounce. He says a quick prayer to who will listen that the male Gel'raw won't attack him, and that the male will pass him by as if he were just part of the scenery.

His prayer is answered as the male Gel'raw surges pass him to the group before him. He hears a cry of pain and disbelief that ends abruptly, he hears the other members of the group flee away from the Gel'raw and its prize. He waits for the crows and local raven pairs to arrive before silently leaving the area, he was both sadden and yet relieved about what happened as he heads back to his camp.

He notices that its sun set and he better hurry if he's to wash his dirty dishes. His heart suddenly aches with loneliness and he fights back the tears that threaten to stream down his face. He's yet again reminded that he's not really part of the tribe that he's grown up on the fringes of. He yearns for acceptance but doubts that he'll ever find it.

At ten years of age, he has about two years to go before he's more or less declared an adult, which will mean that his already unstable position within the tribe could become much worst since he can then be truly caste out into the world without a tribe to claim him. He could also be killed for not hurrying fast enough out of their territory.

He bites his lip as he realises that he might just as well leave now before it actually occurs. _'It's so odd, I can see the two paths that lay before me and while I don't want either to happen, I must accept the fact that they're going to happen whether or not I want them to occur. Better that I leave this year, when they wouldn't know of it until they arrive next spring to this area. Now I just need to figure out which direction to head in…'_ He thinks as he walks towards his bark and hide tipi, he has a lot to think about and time has never really been on his side, so he should be leaving within the next few days before he looses his nerve to leave the only home he's ever known.

'_May ravens and owls haunt their dreams.'_ He thinks once he enters his little clearing in a fowl mood. Anger burning in his heart as he can taste bile in his mouth, his mind's eye imagining the members of his tribe, he hears a caw from some ravens, he watches as some ravens fly into the sky. He blinks and groans as he notices that the large black birds had been feeding off the last bit of meat from his remaining corpse.

/'/-Father-/'/

A raven lands on the rocky perch of his look out. He blinks as the large carrion eater fluffs up its feathers as it projects the image of his son and the boy's mental curse. He smiles slightly, nodding his head ever so slightly which the bird takes as a dismissal.

He waves a hand in the air and a picture of his flesh and blood tearing down the bark and hide tipi is revealed in the air before him. His eyes soften as he glances at the young blond boy who will be reaching adult hood in about two years. He smiles sadly at the image, which changes to reveal the spirit of a fox he that he had sent to retrieve his mortal lover from that tribe.

"_Master."_ The fox says as it gets up into a sitting position. _"It seems that my son has finally decided to leave that triple damned group of mortal men. I leave it to you to guide the boy through his adulthood, my friend. Soon the error that caused you to be imprisoned will be corrected and I will finally be with my son."_ He says, the fox spirit nods and then the fox asks, _"Should I warn him of the other containers, my master?"_

He thinks about this and the nods his head slightly. _"Might as well, I believe that the boy might yet come across one of them before he's ready to leave that plane of existence. I should also warn you that there's a rogue group of medicine men that seek to use the spirits of the imprisoned for their own ends, my friend. My son is not yet strong enough to live without you within him, so I pray you guide him well, my friend, for both of your sakes."_ He says gravely. The fox spirit looks alert but nods in understanding.

The image shimmers and he's soon looking at the tribe his mortal lover had once belonged to. His eyes harden at the sight of joyful children acting like they should with watchful parents observing them. The very sight of those that shun his flesh and blood looking on fondly on their children makes his very being yearn to ripe out their souls and force them to relive his son's memories, to feel the pain they have caused to his child.

"'May ravens and owls haunt their dreams.' That shall do for now. Let them dream of death and of vengeful daemons. They shall not find peace in their dreams, so say I, father of the loathed one." He says, invoking his medicine as he holds out his hand with some stardust on it. He blows it onto the picture, watching as slowly the stardust falls on all the members of that tribe.

The window fades and he turns to find the matriarchal spirit of that tribe leaning by his cave. The spirit frowns at him as she asks, "Why do this? I've been watching and keeping track of him, he's yet to come to harm." He snorts slightly.

"Harm has already been done, you know it and so do I. He was never allowed to be a child, never allowed to part of their activities. He doesn't even know that he has a child name since nobody talks with him, they glare at him and he does the only thing he can, he stays out of their sight in order to avoid their glares. He's half human, which means that he craves being part of something, to socialize with other humans. You know I'm right, but nothing you've done has worked to make them accept him." He pauses and once more the image of the tribal gathering appears.

"They didn't even include him in this celebration. It's the most important event and yet none ever thought to tell him, to ask him to attend. They say they honour the Five, but they have yet to ask why one of the Five is displeased with them and refuses to give his blessing to their children, to their newly appointed adults, to their departed. I have held back on this, I only used the wording of my son's angry curse. We both know I could have done worst." He says flatly and he notices that the spirit just sighs.

"They might prove you wrong; there are those that are uneasy about the absence of the boy. The old leader is working towards getting him accepted and he is making some head way in his campaign." The guardian spirit says before vanishing from his home. He snorts slightly, knowing that his son will be long gone before the spirit realises what's happening with his boy.

'_They've had their chances; they have yet to alter their behaviour. They may never break mine curse, for them to break it, they must not only acknowledge him, but make him their leader, which will never happen since he's 'bastard' son of a trader's daughter. Since a child who doesn't have the right 'blood' can't to rule over the tribe.'_ He thinks to himself, he heads into his cave and leans on the cave wall. A slight smile on his face, in a few days time, he'll join up with the other members of the Five to give or with hold blessings over the Gather that's occurring this year by a few of the tribes of men.

/'/-No Name-/'/

He stands outside of his tipi, he smiles at the view below him. He watches as the mist makes the land below look other worldly, as if he's in another realm. He glances over to the Net'raw, a kind of feline that makes a livelihood on fishing in the lake below.

The Net'raw is a female that's about to have her first litter in a few days. He smiles as he watches the round ear that's closest to him begin to flicker until the slender feline opens her eyes and studies him with lazy eyes. The Net'raw yawns and then returns to napping as if he's not ever here.

"_She has the right idea, kit. There's nothing wrong with sleeping in ever so often."_ The fox trapped within him tells him. He smiles slightly as he considers what to say to his spirit guide. _"But that means I'll miss watching dawn arrive! It's always a beautiful sight to be hold!"_ He replies to his imprisoned guide.

He gets a grunt from the fox and he sighs, the fox's replies almost ruins the coming dawn. He's grown use to the idea that he has a spirit of a fox that serves one of the Five, he's never gave much thought about which of the Five his guide calls master.

He glances back down at the misty landscape below the rocky ledge that he's taken to camping during the warmer months. During the cold months he heads high up into the wind sweep ridges of the Far Cry mountain. The mountain is named Far Cry because of a few local legends about a pair of lovers and how the man died leaving the woman alone. It's said she can still be heard, calling out the name of her lover.

He grins as he watches as dawn's first light graces the east side of the valley. He glances back to where the female fishing feline before picking up his slender spear that he made yesterday while waiting for the first signs of migrating fish coming up from the ocean. His pervious fish traps had been repaired and he had redone the rocky dam he had built two years ago, when he first arrived in this area.

He was ten years old when he left the only home he's ever known, he traveled around for a good two years before finding this place. He had heard about it from a pair of traders at the autumn before he decided to check it out. He's current age is fourteen years old and he will so turn fifteen this autumn.

He comes to the location where his rocky dam is and notices that there are already some fish in the woven branch trap he had made when spring began to conquer the lands that winter had held. He had used thin branches which he had soaked until they were very flexible and could be bent to create the kind of traps he's seen the local tribes use for fishing.

He leans his spear on the ground and goes about the business of taking the trap out of the river. He takes a stick with a sharp point and begins to spear the two fish he has within his trap. He then drills the stick into the ground with the pointed end pointing up to the sky. He then picks up one of the three dry traps and wade out into the part of the river he had dammed up to place. He uses some rocks to keep the trap from floating on top of the water.

He then heads off into the surrounding scrub land to collect old branches. When he returns, he notices that the Net'raw is resting by his spear, the remains of a rabbit a few inches away from the feline. The fishing feline looks at him for a few seconds before returning to her nap. He just shakes his head, still trying to figure out why the Net'raw seems to enjoy his company. He shrugs and returns to the task of changing the traps and spearing the caught fish that he had trapped.

/'/-Alder, one of the Five-/'/

He scowls as he watches as the rogue group of medicine men extract the only spirit that has yet to be imprisoned inside of a human babe. Not only did he lose a messenger, but also a loyal friend as well. His hand flickers and the scene changes.

The son of his fellow order member appears before him, he studies the young teen as the boy works his fish traps. What catches his attention is the pregnant Net'raw that's watching the blond haired teen go about his business. He just rises an eye brow and then studies the female feline with his other senses. He clicks his tongue, surprised to find a descent of one of the nine spirits still around.

'_But then, it does explain why she's so attracted to the boy, not only because he houses the fox spirit, but also has blood of one of the Five flowing within him.'_ He thinks thoughtfully. A odd thought strikes him and a slow grin appears on his face.

"He is practically my nephew, there for I do owe him a Coming of Age Gift. Plus, I always wondered if humans can perform this without any help from tokens… I do believe he's ready for something new, something that will help him explore the territory he's claimed…" He muses out loud, his green eyes sparkling with mischief. The image disappears and he turns to get his things in order, he might be gone for a while.

/'/-Father-/'/

He raises an eyebrow as he watches Alder, the aspect of Water, appears before his son. He glances to find the other three also watching the scene. Tsundra, the aspect of Life, has a slight smile on her face when the pregnant Net'raw is shown. Kelth, the aspect of Earth, and Hirson, the aspect of Fire, just shake their heads, clearly not believing that Alder has just decided to visit his son without even going through the usual protocols before making an appearance on that plane of existence.

"Ashrim, he really takes after you in his looks, doesn't he?" Tsundra comments thoughtful as the scene plays out before their very eyes. "I've been told that by a few of my aerial messengers." He admits. "He has his mother's heart though." Kelth supplies, he smiles softly as he envisions the moral he had taken as a lover. "He does at that. It only makes me ever angrier about the treatment he had received from the Leaf tribe." He says.

"About that, surely they have been punished enough, they have become very edgy and they have become scared to fall asleep." Hirson begins since the Leaf tribe is most profound in the medicine of fire and their guardian spirit also looks to Hirson before any other of the Five. He glances towards Hirson as he replies, "I set terms for that spell, Hirson. They have the means to break it. I have sent my terms to the head shaman time and again whenever they have invoked me to lift the spell. Or did they leave that out of their prayers to you?"

The startled look on the fire aspect's face tells him that they have. "No, they hadn't. What are the terms?" Hirson asks after a while. "They must name him leader of their tribe." He replies and Kelth chuckles on hearing the terms. Hirson also looks bemused and the only female just chuckles softly. "Reasonable terms, very reasonable. Especially considering who his father is." Kelth decides, clearly approving of the terms set. Hirson just sighs and Tsundra snorts lightly.

"I accept those terms." Hirson says, but it was what Tsundra added next that really stunned them. "I declare that if the child dies by the tribes own hands or lack of actions after being declared their leader that the tribe shall follow him into death." They all stared, slacked jawed, at the more gentle and most forgiving member of the Five. "That's not like you, Tsundra. Why would you add to my curse?" He asks slowly after silence reigns for a good amount of time.

"He hasn't done any harm to her." Tsundra says softly and they're all puzzled until they realise that Tsundra is talking about the Net'raw that's been staying with his teenage son. They really didn't know what to say to that, so nobody said anything, though he does feel honoured that Tsundra has added to his curse.

He returns to watching Alder teach his son, he doesn't know what Alder is teaching him, but as he observes, he gets a sneaking suspicion about what it is the aspect of Water has planned.

/'/-No Name-/'/

He would have a smile on his face if not for the fact that birds can't smile because of the beak. He flaps his grey wings as he sails through he forest in the form of a goshawk, also known as a spirit hawk for the bird's ability to move about the forest without any real trouble


	6. Battle of the Shikigami part 1

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

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Chapter 1

He yawns as he closes his sketch book. He leans back in the chair, though he's careful about how far back he leans since he doesn't want to end up on the floor again. He stares off into ceiling over head, he's not thinking about anything in particular as he does so since he's so tired.

He muses about his current project, since they hadn't done any movies since Battle of the Horned Ones; he's decided to give drawing manga a try. He's got loads of ideas of what kind of Shikigami he wants to add but he's still in the planning stage seeing as he's still debating which one will be partnered to the main character, let alone which gender the main character will be. He's got a few sketches for characters and been testing out which colour schemes seem to work well together seeing as he's trying to use metallic colours for this self-appointed project.

He's just glad that he doesn't have to do much research seeing as he's had old notes from researching the other two movies, even if they hadn't used half what they founded. He plans on putting it to good use, though he's more worried about stepping into some copy right disputes over his idea seeing as there will be humans partnering up with monsters. _'Maybe I should go with that bit about them being sorcerers or something similar.'_ He muses to him.

He snaps out of his thoughts as well as almost falls out of his chair when Guilmon enters into the room with the door closing with a large bam. "You scared me, Guilmon!" He says to his partner and Guilmon looks sheepish but it vanishes as Guilmon asks, "You ready yet?" He chuckles slightly as he says, "I should have known. Yea, I am done. Just let me put this stuff away and then we'll go out for ice cream, ok?" Guilmon nods enthusiastically, totally impatient to be out of the house, not that he blamed Guilmon seeing as there was a huge thunder storm that lasted three whole days.

His partners had been visiting Kai's family, leaving him alone and in charge of the bakery. Not that he open up shop, well, not unless some of his friends were bored out of their minds and were looking for something to do, like bake cookies, buns, pastries, and other such goodies. It's not unusual that what they don't sell ends up in their partner's bellies, though Renamon is pretty good at not mimicking their bad habits when it comes to food, even Gatomon sneaks a few, though very discretely.

Since their two movies came out on DVD, none of the Tamers or Digidestine were hard up on cash now a days, even though their partners were putting it towards their college funds. He knows that some of the Digidestine each had their own ideas for what kind of movie they should do next but it's unlikely that they'll be deciding on anything until winter break, at which point they'll have a huge get to gather with all of the Tamers, there are now two new Tamers now, and all of the Digidestine who want to be part of the up coming film project.

'_I wonder how our parents will react when we start up production once more.'_ He wonders to himself as he allows Guilmon to lead him out of his room, out of the house. He scowls at his partner when the red virus rookie splashes him, Guilmon points and laughs, so much so that his partner loses his balance and falls once more into the puddle. He snorts in amusement as he takes the lead, he tries wringing the front of his top out as he heads to the nearest ice cream parlour with Guilmon following in his wake.

-D

In the end, he opted to have a guy as his main character. He's still trying to decide what to call his lead as well as how the guy got involved with the Shikigami. There's also the idea of how these monsters will stay out of the public eye as well and other simple things like that.

His already chosen the lead Shikigami, he's decided on making him a Kirin, a Japanese Unicorn. He's still trying to decide the colour scheme, though it's likely that white was going to be one of the colours though. Aran is going to be the Kirin's name, it suppose to be Forest in Thai, which seems like a good name. He's going to be opting for a spirit beast type with Aran, which makes it kind of a ghost or at least, some kind of phantom type, in the story; it'll make him one of a kind and likely to be a 'legend' type as well.

He's already has the look for the main character and have the guy's colour scheme picked out for some time. He's decided to start the story with the lead being between the ages of eight and ten, though the true action won't start until he's between the ages of twelve and fourteen. He's still trying to decide which others will also have leading roles though and which of those that will would be partners with a Shikigami as well.

As he toys with his pencil, Rika approaches his table. He stops twirling his pencil and moves his sketch book as he greets his girlfriend. "It's good to be back to school, huh?" He asks the red head. "It's better then staying home and trying on dresses." Rika mutters as she sets her tray down on the table as she joins him at the table.

He reaches for his drink; he already finished off his lunch before he began working on his attempts at creating his own manga. "Your mom was home for the thunder storm?" He asks and Rika nods, tries to hide his grin. He knows just how much Rika hates dressing up, she's currently wearing a guy's uniform instead of the girl's uniform with has a skirt. She had gotten into some trouble over it but now the teacher have given up trying to get Rika to wear the other uniform, though some of the more 'popular' crowd still enjoy poking fun at Rika's attire, fortunately Rika's managed to keep her usually short temper under control when she hears such whispers.

He notices Rika's eyes drifting towards his open sketch book. "New art project?" Rika asks and he shrugs. "More like a self appointed project, really. That's Aran." He says, picking up the sketch book and handing it to her. Rika takes it and studies the drawing for a few seconds before handing it back to him, his girlfriend then begins to eat her lunch, leaving him time to glance around the cafeteria looking for Henry, the others had different lunch periods.

"Henry must still be up in the computer lab." He remarked since he couldn't spot their fellow Tamer and friend. "He mentioned something about virus on the company website." Rika says and he nods thoughtfully about that. He settles back onto the bench, he flips to a fresh page and begins to sketch a small humanoid bat with a necklace of pray beads with feathery adornments in the bat's mane of hair.

He stops sketching once Rika finishes her lunch. They compare events that occurred during three day long storm. He admitted to spending the Sunday with the Kamiya's, he enjoyed hanging out with his adopted siblings and their partners. He didn't get a chance to hang out with TK or the other Digidestine since they were busy doing their own thing.

Soon enough their lunch period is over and they head off to their respective classes with a promise to walk her to the bus stop. It's October and within two weeks, it'll be Halloween.

**K-O** TK

He goes through the pages that Takato's completed for his manga, entitled Battle of the Shikigami. He can't help but continue to be amazed by Takato's artistic talents, even though he's known the goggle wearing Tamer since he was eight years old. He nods thoughtfully as he goes back to the cover of the manga.

"I think it looks pretty good, even though it's the first draft of your manga." He tells his friend whose busy going through a few movie ideas for Lancer and Heart could make next year. He glances as Henry exits the bathroom wearing one of the costumes he brought over, the one with mechanical feathered wings.

He shakes his head; he really can't believe that Henry opted for a toga then robes for this angel costume. Takato whistles, which causes Henry to redden slightly, clearly not comfortable having them study him with only a white sheet covering most of his body.

"It must be chilly with only that toga on." He says and Takato nods his agreements. Henry sighs and says, "I can see why the Romans wear them, they're easy to put on though, yea, it would get a bit chilly after a while." Takato pipes in by saying, "Why don't you just stick with the werewolf costume?"

"Because Tai's going to the party as a werewolf." He tells Kari's adopted brother. Henry nods and Takato shrugs. "I thought he decided to go as a vampire." Takato muses and he replies, "No, that's Davis. And Ken's going as a devil with Yolei dressing up as a gothic witch." Takato sighs as his friend runs a hand through his hair.

"Ok, Kari's dressing up as a two tailed cat, right? Or has she changed her mind?" Takato asks him, he answers, "No, she's sticking with the cat costume and I'm going as a three tailed kitsune." Takato glances over to Henry and the goggle wearing Tamer asks, "Ok, what's Jeri going to the party as?"

He puts down the rough draft of Takato's manga and picks up his soda as they wait for Henry to tell them. He doesn't really blame Takato for not following who's dressing up as who or what, seeing as Takato's occupied with not just his manga but also with school work. He hasn't heard what Takato's going as let alone what Rika's dressing up as, it might just mean that they're still deciding or they just want it to be a surprise, though he'd wager that Takato still hasn't picked out a costume and it's more then likely that Rika's taking care of the costume thing.

"Jeri's dressing up as an Egyptian princess and I believe that she's convinced Kazu and Kenta to dress up as Egyptian gods, Anubis and Horus I think." Henry muses and he blinks, from the corner of his eye, he notices how Takato's eyes bugged out slightly. It seems that Takato remembers what that means. Takato shakes his head slowly, clearly not believing Henry about this. "She is? They are?" Takato manages to get out, Henry nods.

"Then why don't you try following that theme?" He asks Henry, curious to find out how Henry would answer his question. "Because I rather not have that much skin showing." Henry answers in a slightly biting tone. "And that doesn't?" Takato asks and Henry just sighs. "I'm more covered now then if I did choose to dress up as an Egyptian." Henry points out and Takato looks slightly embarrassed about that.

Within seconds, Henry withdraws back into the bathroom to change, leaving him alone with Takato. "So, what are you dressing up as?" He asks and Takato looks thoughtful. "You remember when Kari dressed up as Elisa Maza from Gargoyles? Rika and I decided to dress up as Gargoyles from that show. We're left the colour scheme up to Rika's grandmother." Takato answers as his friend puts down the movie scripts and picks up his glass of soda pop.

He nods thoughtfully; he remembers the interest Rika showed in that show that he should have expected that they would eventually chosen to dress up as beings from that show. Now he just has to wonder just what colours they'd likely to look good in. They waited for Henry to come out of the bathroom wearing another one of the costumes for them to judge, so far, Henry's come out wearing a pirate costume, an army private costume, and before the angel costume, Buddha monk costume complete with staff, straw hat, and pray beads.

**K-O** Takato

He glances at himself in the mirror with just the wings and tail attached to his body without his shirt on. He'll have to take off the tail in order to put on the pair of shorts that go with the costume. Of course before that happens he'll have to wait for his body paint to dry off and for the skin glue to finish hardening as well. Simply put, they're going to be at this all day to get dress up in their costumes.

He moves the wings, they move realistically since they're connected to his D-Ark which was hanging from a belt loop. He moves the tail tip before curling it up around his right leg and then having it snake around his left leg. He relaxes his thoughts on where the tail should be and it returns to hanging limply behind him.

It's not long before one of the specialists that Rika's mom hired enters into the room. Within seconds he's only in his birthday suit and lying down on a massage table with the make up people starting to apply the steel grey body paint. Once they're done with his back, he'll have to get have the face parts glued to his face as well as put on these specialised boots and gloves on then he'll have the front of his body painted with his hair being hidden in a skull cap. He'll be wearing a light blue wig by the time they're done today.

He's kind of uncomfortable about this but then, so is Rika. He can't help but wonder how Ms. Nonaka talked Rika into allowing them to undergo this treatment. He just can't wait until this was over and done with. He can only hope that Guilmon wasn't getting into too much trouble or bothering Renamon too badly…

-D

He can't believe the person in the mirror was him. His purple contacts seem to be glowing in contrast to the steel grey body paint. He notices that he seems taller but that's because his walking around on his toes, it makes him seem Digigrade and it helps that the tail does help as a counter weight making it slightly easier to walk around.

He glances away from the mirror as the door opens and Rika walks into the room. Unlike him, the special effects specialists opted to use the London clan of gargoyles as a model for his girlfriend's costume. The animal model that Rika's costume is based off of was a leopard with yellow contacts and a short black wig. Rika's wings look more feathery then leathery and they also lack the spots. The cloths that Rika's wearing a brown tank top and a pair of dull white shorts as well as a beaded leather armband on her right arm and a earring clip on her left ear.

"Well then, I think we're done here." Rika says and he nods in agreement with his girlfriend. He would have offered her his arm but knows that Rika doesn't enjoy public displays of affection so he motions for her to take the lead and then follows her, he folds his wings around him like a cap as Rika does like wise. He can't wait to see their friend's reactions when they show up looking the way they do.

'_I wonder if Yolei and Mimi set up those video cameras to record this moment in time…'_ He wonders as they travel through Rika's grandmother's computer to reach the Halloween party that's reserved for Digidestine and Tamers.

**K-O** Kari

She twirls around to view her back. She moves the twin black tails, she tries to have the right one move up, down, and up with the other one moving down, up, and then down again. She sighs and looks away from the mirror, towards the door. Within minutes she's exiting out of her room and into the living room where Matt, Tai, and TK were waiting.

Tai's dressed up as an elf ranger complete with plastic pointed ears and a bow with a quiver of arrows. Tai's usually wild hair has been tamed down a bit with the help from hair gel. She still can't believe Tai decided to go with an elf instead of some other race like an orc or maybe a troll.

She turns her attention to Matt's costume; Matt decided to dress up as a samurai, complete with twin katana which the elder blond most likely got from the same place as Tai. Matt also used hair gel to tame him spiky hair as well as did his hair up in a topknot style that was common style for samurai. Matt's kimono was a bright yellow shirt with navy blue pants with the sash being brown. Matt's also wearing the typical wooden sandals and white socks.

Finally, her boyfriend's kitsune costume was a royal red colour with emerald contacts covering TK's blue eyes and a wig with fox ears covering TK's blond hair. The three tails had white tips to them as did the ears with black socks and gloves to represent the black socks that a normal fox usual have. Unlike her, TK's wearing red, white, and black face paint with his lower jaw and throat painted white while TK has hints of black by his eyes, leaving the rest of his face totally red. She could only imagine how much of a pain it was for TK to apply the face paint, but could tell that it was worth it.

"So, what do you think Takato and Rika are dressed up as?" She asks TK once they've landed at the check point and were walking the rest of the way to the party site that Sora, Jeri, and Mimi had manage to host, Yolei had been too busy with homework, computer club, and spending time with Ken to help out much with the party. TK turns to look at her, she could have sworn that his eyes were sparkling with amusement as her boyfriend gives her a mischievous grin. "Who says I have to tell you? Besides, why do you think I would know if you don't? After all, you're his sister." TK says teasingly.

"Fine, don't tell me but I'll remember this for later you know." She counters and TK nods, clearly expecting that from her. TK puts his arm around her shoulders and she allows herself to be pulled in. She relaxes as TK slows down so they're pace match, after all, he's taller then she is.

To Be Continued…


	7. Battle of the Shikigami part 2

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

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Chapter 2

**K-O** Henry

He watches the other party goers; he's long since spotted Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta, who were dress up in their Egyptian costumes, as well as Izzy, who's dressed up as a dwarf and Sora, who's dressed up as an Amazon. He's already spotted some of the international Digidestine whose names he remembers. Though he has yet to spy Ryo, Takato, and Rika though he's spotted their partners outside who were attending the Digimon party that's being held out there, with the food being served under a very large tent.

He watches as Tai and Matt walk into the building from the east side, followed by Kari and TK, he notices that Kari's dressed up in a cat costume with two tails, just like TK had said and that TK's dressed up as a three tailed kitsune, just like he said he would. After a few seconds it's clear that Rika and Takato hadn't arrived with them, he turns to look at the west entrance to find Ryo walking into the building with Ken and Yolei.

Ryo's dressed up as a ninja while Ken and Yolei were dressed up as the main characters from Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. Ken's dressed up as Ashitaka complete with a short sword. Yolei's dressed up as San with face paint and jewellery.

He notices two figures entering from the third entrance. He blinks as he begins to realise that those two figures, the grey one and the spotted one were most likely Takato and Rika. Even though he expected them to dress up as a pair of gargoyles based off of that Disney show, he never expected them to look like that. _'They must have used the costume machine… right?'_ He asks himself as he follows the pair as they begin to mingle with the crowd, their wings remain clock like over their shoulders with their tails twitching ever so often.

He waits a few more minutes before descending to the main floor to hook up with the pair. He could only imagine just what those two look like up close. He wonders just how many will recognized them without having to be told who they were…

'_I wonder if it's too late to change my bet.'_ He muses as he leaves the stair case and begins to weave his way through the crowd of Digidestine and Tamers.

**K-O** Takato

They arrived through the third public entrance, the fourth and finally entrance leads into the kitchen area, which is a private area where the food is being kept. He notices the admiring looks with hints of envy being sent towards Rika and himself's direction. He smiles slightly, though he notices that Rika seems highly satisfied with their reaction as she seems to carry herself with a great deal more confidence and pride, reminding him of the way she use to carry herself before they became friends, really good friends.

After a few minutes, Henry dressed up as Goku from Dragon Ballz showed up. He grins slightly as Henry's gaze flickers from Rika to him and back again. "I thought we weren't going to use the make up machine." Henry says softly once he's close enough to the both of them. "We didn't." He states and Rika adds, "My mom pulled a few strings and some professional special effects people worked on the two of us."

Henry blinks, not expecting that. "They did a really great job it seems." Henry says and he nods in agreement. "Sure did, but I'm not sure I'd go through it again though." He admits to Henry and he could tell that Rika agree with him. Henry raises an eyebrow but doesn't probe any farther into the subject, he figures that Henry will wait until later to get the details out of him but in the mean time, opts to change the subject.

They talk about little things like which Digidestine came with who and what's the big surprise was likely to be. It wasn't long before Davis found them, though the marooned haired teen did double takes at him and then with Rika, it seems that Davis clearly didn't expect them to show up as a couple of gargoyles. He lets his wings fold onto his back, allowing people to see the rest of his body, though Rika's wings remain over Rika's shoulders like a cloak.

"Geeze, you just had to use that machine, didn't you?" Davis comments and he chuckles while Henry informs the carrier of the Digi-Eggs of Courage and Friendship about where they really got their costumes. Davis snorts softly as he shakes his head slowly; clearly in slight disbelief about how good of a job those professionals did on Rika and himself.

He takes time study Davis's werewolf costume; he notes the furry shirt that Davis is wearing underneath the ragged T-shirt and the patch worked jeans. Davis's mask was in his gloved covered hand, it's highly likely that the mask got too stuffy for him and had taken if off. He glances away from Davis, glancing around the crowd, looking for his other friends and adopted family members.

In time the group consisting of Henry, Davis, Rika, and himself drift towards the concessions table to get something to drink or to eat. He's personally glad they had straws since he didn't want to ruin the make up job he underwent for the better part of the day. He had been stunned to learn he had to not only get one coating of body paint but four extra layers! He hadn't expected to hear that, though in the end, while he might have wanted it, he allowed them to do as they will since he knows that Rika's mom must have went to a lot of trouble for their sakes.

It's not long before Ken and Yolei join them at the concession table, he almost laughed at the looks on Ken and Yolei's faces when the pair realised who Rika and him were. Though it wasn't long for Yolei to pull Rika away to engage in some girl talk, which means that in a few minutes their ranks will be joined by Mimi, Jeri, Kari, and Sora as his groups ranks will swell as Matt, Tai, Izzy, Joe, Ryo, Kazu, Kenta, TK, and Cody locate them.

So it doesn't really surprise him when TK pops up followed by his elder brother, Tai, and Matt. He once more enjoys their reactions when they realise who he was. He's slightly taken back by Tai's costume choice though he kind of finds the plastic ears funny. It seems Davis did too, seeing how TK's 'rival' for his sister was laughing. It's not long before Davis is nursing the back of his head, right where Tai slapped him upside the head.

Davis pouts slightly, hoping to get some sympathy for his injury. Neither Tai or Matt, or even TK were looking at Davis for they're currently busy staring bugged eyed at him. "And here I though TK worked hard to paint his face." Matt mutters as Matt gives TK a sideways glance. TK shrugs at that, it seems his blond friend wasn't offended by that comment.

"Rika's mom hired some professional special effects people. It took hours for them to finish with the body paint; they did five layers of it." He informs them, Tai looks bemused by this news as does Matt. TK shakes his head, clearing not expecting them to undergo so much work for their costumes.

It's not long before the conversation turns to; of course, soccer seeing as there's three soccer players currently dominating the conversation going on between them. He nods his greeting to Ryo, Kazu, and Kenta when they appeared as they give him looks of astonishment, which only stroked his ego, though he still refuses to go through the trouble of getting the make up applied. He returns to watching his elder brother talk animatedly with Davis and Ken, he smiles slightly, as it's been a while since he's listened to Tai talk about one of his favourite sports.

Over the next hour, the core element of the Digidestine, those that were primarily those that saved the Digital World and the real world at least twice, though only Cody stuck around afterwards, both Izzy and Joe were off making their rounds, it seems that they've been conscripted by Mimi and Sora to help out as have a few other international Digidestine it seems as well.

Just as it came to be eight o'clock, the group was joined by Kari, Rika, and Yolei for the others were getting ready to unveil the evening's surprise. He also notes that Rika's finally relented and has her wings folded up on her back and not draped over her body like a cloak. Other then joining hands, they didn't do much more to show they're happy to be together. He watches as Kari and Yolei peck their boyfriend's on their respective cheeks.

While he does understand why Rika loathes public displays of affection, he can't help but feel slightly envious of his sister. He glances at Rika, she moves closer to his body and without thinking; he has his wing closest to Rika wrap around her shoulders. Rika gives him a side ways glance but doesn't do much more other then move slightly more into him. He stiffens for a few seconds, almost waiting for an elbow in his side but when he doesn't receive it, relaxes and sighs softly, glad that the music and the chatter around them was there to mask the sound.

It's not long before the music stops and the lights go off leaving the stage lights on. He watches as Mimi and Jeri walk on stage, he notices that though Jeri's wavers slightly, she didn't flee or look sick to her stomach. Jeri's sometimes suffers from a bit of stage fright, something that just might be a bit of a side effect from her time as the D-Reaper's hostage.

His one wing moves off of Rika's shoulder as he waits for either Mimi or Jeri to address the audience.

**K-O** Rika

She eyes the couple's trophy with a dry expression on her face. It seems instead of just awarding a grand prize for the greatest costume, they did a bunch of mini prizes like who's costume was the most environmentally friendly and the award for the most best simplistic costume. She really did expect to tie for best costume with Takato, not win an award for being a couple.

She glances at her boyfriend, Takato currently listening to Guilmon describe the activities the Digimon side of the party had done and what prizes handed out to those that won. Her own partner walked away with the prize for the most stealth Digimon, a prize that suits the golden fox rookie. She can't help but shake her head, she wonders if somehow it was some kind of scam to bring Goggle head and her closer together, it's not that far fetched considering the parties involved in hosting the party after all.

She's not deaf, despite what her female half of her class think. She knows perfectly well what kind of rumours that were circulate among the 'popular' crowd and she's pretty sure Takato knows too, only he's more likely to shrug such things off as not important. She's kind of glad that none of her old classmates from that all girls' school entered into the mainstream public high school since it's highly likely that such stories would have a lot more bit to them then what they have now.

It wasn't look before they make it to her place. She opens the door and holds it to allow Takato and their partners inside. Takato grins at her and says, "You should have waited, Rika. It's a gentlemen's job to hold doors open for the lady." She smirk at that and she replies, "That goes to show who's the one wearing that pants in this relationship, huh?"

Her boyfriend chuckles and when she gets close, he pulls his arms around her shoulders, his wings mimicking the movement. They hold in this position for a few minutes, her face was reddening but she feels so comfortable with him holding her like this… She glances at him, staring into his contacted covered eyes, even though they're not the right colour she feels like she could lose herself in those warm and caring eyes…

"Weird night, huh?" Takato asks softly and she nods. "I can't believe we won the couple's award." She muses and her Goggle head chuckles softly. "Well, they had to give it to us or else they'd be stuck trying to decide which of us had the better costume." Takato points out and she chuckles. "Better then thinking they set it up to bring us closer together." She muses out loud.

They pulled apart when her grandmother make a throaty sound, she's highly embarrassed at having been catch by her grandmother. She had noticed that Renamon and Guilmon were nowhere in sight, it's highly likely that Renamon kept Guilmon from interrupting their moment by mentioning left over Halloween candy…

Her grandmother motions for the two of them to enter into the house. "I've been instructed to remind you to us that liquid soap that they put with your cloths to wash off the body paint. Rika, you'll find a pan of warm water to help you get the plastic skin off without having to rip it off. Takato, you're things are in the bathroom." Her grandmother tells them before heading off to do what she wants to do.

They split up, she heading to her bedroom while Takato heading towards the bathroom. It takes her about twenty minutes to take off not just the plastic skin but also the gloves and special designed boots. The wings and tail had been easy to remove and she's just glad to get out of the shirt and shorts she had been wearing, they made her feel very exposed.

She manages to catch Takato a few minutes later, she finds it funny seeing Takato with steel grey skin, though she probably looks just as ridiculous with her yellow paint with black spots. She walks with him to the kitchen; Guilmon was waiting for Takato with Renamon making sure that the virus rookie doesn't go through the fridge.

"See you tomorrow, Rika." Takato says before exiting out of the house. "Just be sure to scrub yourself clean, Goggle head." She replies and Takato nods in agreement. "Well, I won't keep you from your bath, Rika. Bye." Takato says lightly, she watches the two vanish through the street gate before turning around and heading to the bathroom to draw herself a nice warm bath so she could scrub the body paint from her body.

**K-O** Takato

He studies sketches of different character ideas, though his mind really wasn't on the task at hand, but rather he was remembering the hug he shared with Rika two days ago. He's wearing a soft grin as the whole incident replays itself within his mind's eye. While he yearns for more moments like that, he knows that Rika's the one setting the pace of their relationship and he knows that it'll be a while before Rika's comfortable with physical expression of affection, though he knows it's worth the effort they're putting into the relationship.

He'll be the first to admit that their relationship was rocky but it was their first relationship and they were taking it slow so they don't make too many mistakes. With that in mind, he packs up the pages on his desk top before heading to his bed. With a sigh, he relaxes on his bed and begin to take a nap since he felt pretty exhausted from the all nighter the night before so he could be ready for a pop quiz that was scheduled for today.

-D

He practically shouted when he woke to find Guilmon hovering about three inches from his face. Guilmon pulls his head back with a slight yell as he sighs once he sits up. "How many times have I told you not to do that, Guilmon?" He asks his partner, his partner cocks his head to the side and replies, "Huh, not to do it?"

He stares at his partner for a few seconds before chuckling at his partner's response. It takes him a few minutes before he regains control of himself. He gives his partner a fond look and says, "Sorry Guilmon, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just a little startling to wake up to find you staring at me that close up." Guilmon shrugs at his apology and ask, "So you're ready to go now?"

It takes him a few minutes to realise what Guilmon was talking about before he remembers his promise to take Guilmon, Calumon, Impmon, and Impmon's Tamers to the movies. His stomach growls and he glances to the clock on the wall. Guilmon grins as he puts his right hand over his midsection. "We'll grab a bite to eat before meeting up with them, ok?" He says to his partner. "Ok Takatomon." Guilmon chirps and he sighs as his head drops down to his chest on hearing that old nickname.

It's not long before they exit out of his room and head down into the kitchens to raid the fridge for a snack before heading out to hook up with Impmon, Calumon, and the twins. It's not long before they're racing to the closest bus stop so they can be on time for the movie.

**K-O** Scout A045

Once she's sure that the goggle wearing teen wasn't returning right away, she lands on the balcony that leads into the Tamer's room. She opens the window and once inside, begins to go through the papers on the desk. Once she's done looking through the papers on the desk, she goes through the drawers and finds a thick pad containing a large amount of drawings.

While she's tempted to take the book with her, she knows that it'll be missed so she goes through it carefully, memorizing all of the drawings contained within. Just as she's about to continue searching through the desk, she hears someone by the door and decides to retreat seeing as she's got plenty to report to her commander.

To Be Continued…


	8. Battle of the Shikigami part 3

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

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Chapter 3

**K-O** Izzy

He frowns as he once more finds a virus within one of his movie based files. The movie files are sorted into different genre and contained rough sketches of scripts as well as character profiles. While Lancer and Heart rather focus on filming one movie at a time, he's aware that one day they'll be making a number of films in different stages of production, and he believes that day's coming sooner rather then later considering the fact that everyone has their own thoughts about what kind of movie they should be producing this coming year.

Oddly enough, he's not just getting script from just Digidestine, Henry gets the script ideas of the few Tamers, but he's also getting authors sending him book scripts that they wouldn't mind giving them the rights to produce them. Very few of the Digidestine or Tamers know about that bit of information since nobody's bothered to ask about book to movie deals they might have received, though it's likely that it might come up this coming December's meeting.

Though with his computer continuing to being infested with viruses, he's beginning to wonder if there's more to this then him downloading infected files or opening infected E-mails. He frowns as a thought about Diaboromon being behind this sudden spring of viruses attacking Lancer and Heart's two websites. He knows Henry's having trouble with them and mentioned it in passing during the Halloween party.

He turns off his computer in order to keep the viruses from doing whatever they're doing, though he'll regret doing so later when he restarts his computer to find more files infected. He walks over to his bed and takes out his lap top, he doesn't have the ability to modify the website from this computer but he knows it's secure and that it's highly unlikely that viruses could get onto this computer since it's the same one that was with him during his first adventure to the Digital World and that the programs are continuously updated since the lab top has a direct link to Gennai's computer which allows for a safe communication between them.

He turns on the computer; he has to wait for it to reboot itself before he could send an E-mail to Gennai about his suspicions concerning the viruses targeting the movie files on his primary home computer.

**K-O** Takato

He glances around at those that decided to show up for this meeting that Izzy called. Tai's absent since he's got a soccer game to be at, Matt's busy with band practice, Kari's busy with her cheerleading, Rika's gone shopping with Jeri, while Cody has Kendo practice, TK's busy writing a newspaper article, and Henry asked him to attend seeing as he's helping Ryo study for an upcoming test. He notices that there are eight International Digidestine that decided to show up; they're the ones that are often helping out by monitoring the computer equipment as well as sometimes being cameramen, or camerawomen seeing as how three of the International Digidestine are of the 'fairer' gender.

He's kind of surprised when Gennai appears out of Izzy's lab top, he leans forward, his interest is very much piped seeing that Gennai's attending the meeting. Yolei wonders off to his left, "I guess this is more then just someone hacking into our company's website." He nods in agreement with Yolei's musings.

Izzy coughs slightly and the noise level goes down in volume until the room is quiet. "Thank you for coming to these meeting today considering the short notice that was sent out. I'm sure you all remember Gennai." Izzy starts, when Gennai's name was said, said robed man nods in acknowledgement when everyone glances towards the tall robed Digital man.

Izzy continues, "About the beginning of October, Henry and I have began to notice viruses beginning to infect movie data files of submitted movie ideas as well as infecting Lancer and Heart's company files. Though we've tried to locate the origins of where these viruses come from, we've been unable to find where they're coming from as well as how they've found their way into our files." He frowns, he didn't like where this was going…

**K-O** Scout B086

He presses the number one button on his cell phone. It seems that they have to act now before those attending this meeting leave. It's not long before he's given the go ahead to set up a DV-Field in hopes of getting rid of those within the room from warning the rest of those people partnered with Digimon.

They were still experimenting with DV-Fields, the sketchy program that's set up within the data disk was based on information that Scout A045 retrieved from Tamer Takato's room. It's highly doubtful that they'll survive the experience since from what they can tell, the Tamer has yet to complete the story he had been in the process of writing.

Once he's finished setting up the DV pylons and about to press the start button, he pauses as he swears he hear some wind-charms sound out behind him. He snaps his head around to find nothing there and finally presses the start button. The pylon begins to blink and then start to hum, and then finally there's a flash of light before the pylons' humming becomes a lower tone then what it was when they were just starting up. He looks back down at the lab top's screen, waiting for the life signs to vanish before disassembling the DV-Field and retreating back to head quarters.

**K-O** Takato

He groans as he opens his eyes, he's glad that it's not bright in the room he now finds himself in. He sits up slowly, he frowns as he studies the darken room. He runs his right hand through his hair; he frowns when he notices that he doesn't have his signature goggles and begins to look around the room for them.

He frowns when he realises he can't find them. He gets off the bed and can't help but notice that things look bigger then they should… It takes some time but he makes his way to the bathroom. He notices a mirror leaning to the right of the bathroom wall. He walks in front of it and yelps in shock.

Instead of a hazel red eyes framed with brown hair staring back at him there were emerald eyes framed with darkish red hair. Instead of a teenager being in the mirror, there was an eight to nine year old standing in the mirror. He can't believe that the kid in the mirror was him, but he can't deny it since the kid in the mirror was aping his movements.

"Something wrong, Keiji-chan?" A woman's voice asks from outside of the bathroom door. He stares at the door, dumbfounded by not just the woman's tone but also by the name Keiji. He snaps out of it when the woman knocks on the door and asks in a worried voice, "Keiji-chan?"

"I'm just … ah, startled by the mirror, okaasan." He calls out in a voice not his own. "If you say so, musuko." The woman that's now identified as his latest mother says. He lets out a breath he had been unknowingly been holding.

It's not long before he's heading out of the bathroom and heading back to his room. He collapses on the bed, he's head hurts already as he tries to piece together what happened. In time, he fell into a fitful sleep.

**K-O** Yolei

"Sen-chan, it's time to get up." A sing-song voice says after someone knocks on her door. She shoves her head deeper into the pillow; it takes her a few minutes before she finally rolls onto her back and sits up. Her hand reaches out automatically to grab her glasses and then she's off to use the washroom.

She frowns as she notices how high up the counter top was when she tried to wash her hands. When she finally does find something to use, her hands go straight to her mouth to muffle her yelp of shock. She couldn't believe her eyes; she would have thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. It didn't help matter much that she's not wearing any glasses either…

It doesn't help matter much that the person staring back at her wasn't a teenager nor did the reflect look like her. In the mirror as a kid between the ages of eight or nine, bright grey eyes were framed by short black hair with her skin tone being chocolate brown. Her facial features were of mixed decent, likely African and Japanese.

'_Ok Yolei, take slow and deep calming breathes. Whatever has happened, it has to be temporary. This has to be a dream so just stay calm and you're more likely going to wake up given enough time.'_ She tells her self with her eyes closed.

She managed to calm down enough to open her eyes and head out of the bathroom. It takes her a few minutes to change into a school uniform and then walk down the stairs. She pauses at the sight of a woman making breakfast and a dark toned man sitting at the table. It takes her a few minutes to realise that these people were likely her parents for this dream and relaxes slightly before entering into the dinning room.

Her father looks up at her and smiles at her, she smiles nervously at the man that's to be her father until she wakes up.

**K-O** Mimi

She couldn't help but scream when she looked into the mirror in her room. She can't believe what's happened to her, let alone begin to accept that she's now a girl between the ages of seven through nine. Nor can she believe that she's as pale as the girl being reflected let alone have the short black hair and honey coloured eyes.

It doesn't help matter that the room didn't look like a girls room since the walls were a shade of blue and there are posters of boy things like cars and monsters. The room belonged to a tom boy and she's anything but a tom boy. Just as she loses her breath and about to renew her screams when the door opens and someone looking just like her enters into the room.

"Who are you?" They said at the same time and they both frown. "You tell me!" They said once more in sync, as if they're twins. "What's trouble Suchin? Phailin?" A man's voice can be heard shouting from down stairs. "…" They glance at each other before the girl with long hair shouts out, "Ah, just seeing what's wrong with…" She notices the name plat the same time the other girl does. "Suchin, otoosan!" The girl that looks to be her twin then shouts.

There's a pause before the man shouts out, "Just remember not to start up again about the bear issue, Phailin!" They both then return to studying each other. "I'm not Suchin." She finally says and Phailin sighs. "I'm not Phailin. My real name's Sora." She gasps slightly and then claps her hands together. "It's like a dream come true!" She says and gives Sora a hug.

"Mimi?" Sora hazards a guess and she nods once she lets go of Sora. "I always considered you my oneesan and now you are!" She says and then the reality of what happened hit her. "But… how come we're kids?" She wonders out loud. "Well if we're like this then the others are likely in a similar situation." Sora points out and she nods thoughtfully.

"So, now what do we do?" She wonders out loud and Sora shrugs.

**K-O** Izzy

"Akio-chan, are you alright in there? Breakfast is almost ready and you've been in there for about fifteen minutes, honey." A woman's voice says with concerned just outside of the door. He glances at the door, he blinks blankly, startled out of his thoughts. He sighs and shouts out, "I'm alright, okaasan, I'm just a little tired is all."

"Do you think you can make it through school?" The woman that's his mother for now asks in concern. He blinks before answering, "Err, I think so." It's not long before she's gone from the door and he turns back to staring at the blond and blue eyed boy staring back at him. "I guess things are going to be very interesting for now on." He muses to himself before he gets down off of the stepping stool and heads to his room to get ready for school.

**K-O** Joe

He studies the man lying on the couch with an empty bottle of alcohol being held in his hand. He had just gotten out of the bathroom after staring for a good thirty minutes at his new appearance. He glances up as a lady enters into the apartment; she frowns on noticing the man but only sighs and shakes her head.

"Uncle Ouji had a long night, Riku-chan, so don't try and wake him up for breakfast, ok?" The lady says as she looks fondly at him. He nods dumbly and heads up to the table; he's mind racing at how he's ended up in this situation and hoping that he'd be able to contact the others without too much trouble. It's not long before he's eaten a bowl of oatmeal and he's heading off to school with the lady escorting him so he doesn't get lost on the way.

**K-O** Gennai

His left eye brow was twitching, but that can't be helped seeing how he woke to find himself in bed with a teenager, of course he's a teenager but what got him was not only was the teen a boy but he's suppose to be the guy's boyfriend!

"Are you sure you're ok, Seiko-chan?" Hayao asks for the fifth time this morning. "I'm just a little… startled it all." He replies as he puts his bowls into the sink. He doesn't stiffen when Hayao gives him a hug from behind; he just sighs and deflates in defeat. "You'd think being together for six months you'd be comfortable by now sleeping with your koibito." Hayao muses, clearly not offended by his reactions which relieves him since he needs to know just what's going on and Hayao was as good a source of information as any.

"We got to get ready for school, did you want to use the shower first or should I?" He asks as Hayao nibbles his ear. "We could always save time and share one." Hayao says huskily by his left ear. "I highly doubt we'd have time to clean ourselves under such conditions." He says weakly, he's feeling things he's never felt before and he's also in a situation he doesn't have any experience with.

'_If I ever find out who's responsible for putting me in this situation, I'm going to kick them repeatedly in the b—ls before skinning them alive!'_ He thinks murderously as Hayao heads off to have a shower. He allows himself to think up other forms of punishment before he realises that he'd get more information by looking through his text books and his room. He could only hope to find some kind of journal that details the life of whoever he's suppose to be, since he doesn't want people to be suspicious about his behaviour or lack of current events.

**K-O** Takato

He watches as kids walk in groups as well as wait for their friends to be dropped off. It doesn't seem unusual since there's suppose to be a murderer loose, which was why his latest mother walked him here. While he had been at his latest home, he had noticed the lack of a father figure in most of the pictures, causing him to guess that his parents of this world were either divorced, he left her, or he's dead.

He watches as a group of individuals seem to be standing around the gate, they didn't seem very happy about being here, though the twins seem to be casting suspicious looks at the kids around them. He then notices the darker skinned kid come towards his hiding spot by the tree. He notices how the girl's hands seem to be trying to push up a pair of imaginary glasses.

He reveals himself and takes a guess, "Yolei?" He's in luck as the girl jerks back in surprise and snaps her head towards him. He sighs and smiles in relief. "Err,… maybe." She says and he snorts softly. "It's odd not having your glasses, huh?" He asks and the dark skinned girl sighs. "And you are?" She asks, it's clear she was think he's Izzy seeing as Izzy was a red head. "Takato." He supplies and within seconds he finds himself being hugged by Yolei, it sounds like Yolei's more then a little freaked about what's happened and he does his best to comfort her.

He notices the same habit that Yolei displayed when a group of four kids surround them. "Hey Joe." He says as he nods towards the pony tail kid that was trying up push up a pair of imaginary glasses. Joe the kid stiffens slightly before one of the twin girls shouts out, "We're not alone!" "Mimi!" The long haired twin says and Yolei has recovered enough to watch the proceedings going on between Mimi and Joe.

"Well, this makes thinks easier." The blond admits in relief. Sora nods in agreement though Joe asks, "How'd you know I was me?" "You're not wearing glasses. Yolei did the same thing." He says. "So, you're Takato then?" Sora asks him and he nods.

It's not long before the bell rings and they're get lost on their way inside. Since none of them knew which class they're suppose to be attending, they weren't just late but they also got detentions as well, not that they minded seeing as it'll give them time to discuss stuff. He could only guess where the eight International Digidestine were but knows that they'll find each other as well as locate Gennai once they've decided on their course of action.

To Readers:

Ok, I'm trying out something with this arc; I've decided to give using Japanese terms a try for as long as they're in the DV-Field. If you're not familiar with Japanese terms, I'll have a list of translations at the end of each chapter as long as the story is in the DV-Field. I'll have a link up for you guys to click on so you can visit the site I'm currently using for Japanese terms and definitions.

Also DV-Field stand for Disassembled Vision Field and that's all for now.

Chan – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Okaasan – mother

Musuko – my son

Otoosan – father

Oneesan – sister

Koibito – boyfriend

To Be Continued…


	9. Battle of the Shikigami part 4

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

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Chapter 4

It's been a week since they found themselves as children with a totally make over. He stares up at the ceiling in his room; he can't fall asleep even though it's almost 1 am in the morning. He rolls onto his stomach and covers the back of his head with a pillow as he reviews what they know for sure.

First off, they're currently living in a relatively small town on the coast of the Sea of Japan on the island of Hokorato, which wasn't a real island according to Izzy and Yolei, which means it only exists in this world. The town is called Naidori; it's also about three hours away from some hot spring resort, making the main income of Naidori tourism. Naidori's population numbers, oddly enough about eight thousand people, which was kind of low considering they're living in Japan.

Next up was that they now have to answer to different names then their original names, his name for now is Sikami Keiji and his mother for now is Sikami Karin. He has yet to learn the name of Karin's husband but hasn't pushed it after seeing her reaction to his inquiry. He frowns slightly before rolling onto his side and removing his pillow as he recalls the unreadable look on her face before she recovered from his last question.

He then shakes himself out of that memory and goes through the list of names that Izzy and the others are going by while they're living in this world. _'Izzy's name is Raiga Akio, Joe's name is Sousetsu Riku, Yolei's name is Dotou Sen, and finally with Mimi and Sora answering to Yashiro Suchin and Yashiro Phailin.'_ He muses to himself.

His eyes seem to close on their own as he begins to fall asleep when he thought he heard something from behind him. He opens his eyes and makes a strangled noise as he finds he's no longer in bed, let alone in bedroom that's been his room for the last week. He gets to his feet and glances around the dark room, he swears there are things lurking just beyond his line of vision but he doesn't know if that's a good thing or not.

For some odd reason, this seems oddly familiar though he couldn't put his finger on it as he moves slowly forward, towards the source of the flame lighting the room. He hears feet shuffle and can't help but become slightly unnerved by the sound since it means he's not alone in this place. He feverously wishes that Guilmon was by his side but knows that for now at least, he's a lone, without a partner to confide in and to hang out with.

He pauses for a moment to gather his confidence before arriving at a throne resting between four candle holders alit with torches at their top. He gawks at the stone throne; he can't help it as his mouth opens in shock. He's still trying to reboot his brain when a tall humanoid shadow appears by one of the lamps.

"If you would sit down, kodomo, we can get started." The shadowy figure says. He nods stiffly and walks up to the throne, his mind racing as he recalls how this scene will most likely play out. He settles himself down on the throne, as he expected, the throne altered to suit his tastes. Its colour was now a rich royal blue and seems to be made out of a kind of leather with ebony coloured wood used as the frame. The armrests now have a serpent dragon snaking forwards with a ruby in the right armrests' mouth with a pearl in the left armrests' mouth.

The area around the throne alters slightly and there's now a narrow carpet leading up to the front of the throne with the candle holders providing more light around the throne area, allowing him to see black shapes hiding with the deep shadows at the edge of where the light stops. He glances sideways towards the shadowy figure that had addressed him earlier to find a short figure of a teenager crossed with a lion. The figure sighs before standing up a little bit straighter, it seems that since the teen's been elected to be their spokesmen, this lion Shikigami is not allowed to introduce himself until the other candidates have been presented.

'_Odd, I had used a dragon Shikigami for my story…'_ He muses to himself, he snaps out of it as the lion Shikigami begins addressing the chamber. "Sikami Keiji, you have been chosen to be the first of your world to be able to pick a partner for the up coming tournament that shall be held eight years from now." He watches as shadows within shadows seem to move, a murmur of excitement comes from those Shikigami all around him, which should be about two hundred in total, which includes lion boy standing within the light of the torches.

"You can only choose one of us to be your partner; you can't re-pick your partner once you've picked a Shikigami you believe would be suitable companion from now until the end of the tournament. Do you understand these terms?" The lion Shikigami asks. "I believe so." He says, he's slightly uneasy since it means that now he has to befriend someone who'll, no doubt, become as dear to him as his Digimon partner, Guilmon, friends, and members of his blood and adopted family. He doesn't know if he has it in him to bond with some so deeply right now …

He glances away from the lion Shikigami and tries not to fidget too much as he waits for a Shikigami to approach the throne to introduce themselves to him in hopes of being picked by him for the up coming tournament, something he had thought up as a plot device but hadn't gone into much detail over since it he had just finished the rough draft for volume one of his manga.

Too his surprise, six Shikigami appeared before him. Starting to his far right and going left, there was Miyazaki of the Earth Shikigami who looks like a short elf who stands an inch shorter then him with a colour scheme of grey and purple. Next is Adit of the Water Shikigami and he looks like a salamander with soft green, soft blue, and dull red colouring. Avatari of the Spirit Shikgami is a misty coloured sparrow type and she stands about the same height as Miyazaki. Then there's Dongo of the Sky Shikigami and he's a dragon Shikigami who takes after the Western ideas of what a dragon should look like. Dongo's colouring was silvery blue with white markings. The dark beauty to Dongo's left is Hang of the Shadow Shikigami and she looks similar to Miyazaki with her primary colours being navy blue and purple. Then finally for this group, there's Minh of the Fire Shikigami who looks like a cub of some big cat species and his colouring is brown with a bright red stripe of fur going from his head to the tip of his tail.

He asked a few questions to this group before they're dismissed, it seems he has four groups to go through before he's expected to pick a partner, which was different then what he had done in his manga though it seems that the six types were the same with the Shikigami being part of either spirit, shadow, water, air, earth, and fire. The hybrid spokes Shikigami, who's most likely either of the earth tribe or of the spirit tribe announces for the next group to assemble.

Once more another six Shikigami appears before him. This time going left to right, he had Narissara of the Sky Shikigami. Narissara was much like the lion spokesperson though she looks much younger then him though still slightly taller then him. Narissara was a hybrid of a doe and a young child with her colours being brown, creamy white, and a soft green. To her right was Kiet of the Water Shikigami, Kiet was a fox Shikigami with three tails who's colour scheme was green and a bland hue of blue and Kiet stands about the size of Avatari and Miyazaki, though he's two inches shorter then them though he's longer in the body.

Then there's Nergui of the Shadow Shikigami who's a navy blue dragon with a mane of dark green who stands about same height as Adit of the Water Shikigami but is three inches longer then Adit. To Nergui's right was Temujin of the Earth Shikigami. Temujin's a badger Shikigami whose colours were black, white, and red and Temujin stands as big as Avatari and Miyazaki. Batu of the Spirit Shikigami has the looks of Miyazaki with his colour scheme being yellow, white, and grey. The final member of this group is Maylin of the Fire Shikigami. Maylin is a golden coloured serpent dragon with bright orange markings and was the same size as Nergui though unlike Nergui, Maylin doesn't have a mane but has a full head of ivory antler looking horns with Nergui having steel grey stumps for horns.

Like before he asked a few questions before the group of Shikigami moved away to allow the third group of six Shikigami to appear before him. It takes a few seconds for the next group to appear, though the one for the Sky Shikigami appears in a whirl of wind, clearly showing off his skills with his element. He smiles slightly at the display which causes the monkey Shikigami to look highly smug with himself with the other Shikigami of that group just roll their eyes and shake their heads. It seems that the monkey Shikigami's relatively young for a Shikigami and that's why the monkey didn't get a verbal rebuff from any of the Shikigami gathered within this intermeddle plane.

Once more they go through introductions, starting from right to left this time. The Shikigami from the Shadows is Wei, unlike the previous Shikigami of the Shadows; Wei's a beetle with his colour scheme being light grey with his shell being a brilliant blue and purple in colour. Next is Zhi of the Spirit, Zhi's another tall Shikigami that looks like a teen. Zhi looks to be a cross between a horse and a teenager, his colouring is creamy yellow, white, and red. Next to Zhi is Xue of the Water Shikigami and her species is an otter, Xue's colouring is totally white with light blue streaks through her fur.

His gaze falls onto Xia of the Fire Shikigami, Xia's a lynx Shikigami and her colouring is black, silver, and red. Shing is the monkey Sky Shikigami that showed off his skills. This Shikigami's colouring is chocolate brown with a yellowish green and white as bonus colours. Finally there's Syaoran of the Earth Shikigami and much like his name, he's a wolf Shikigami. Syaoran's colours are orange, grey, and black.

Once more he asks a few questions before the third group are dismissed. As the fourth group begins to show themselves before him, a commotion occurs and he notices how the lion speaker of the Shikigami frowns, it seems that the cause of the commotion was two Shikigami, both were known as Asian Unicorns, one was a Qilin since he can make out the clawed paws which weren't the split hooves of a Kirin, whom the Qilin was fighting with.

The Qilin's colours were orange, red, and gold. The Qilin's antler horns were two pronged and looked like they were made out of gold. The mane of the Qilin is orange with the scales being ruby red in colour. Much like the Qilin's horns, the mythical beast's claws look like they were made out of gold as well as they flash in the light of Qilin's fire breath as the flame heads straight for the Kirin.

The hoofed mythical beast evades the attack and rams the Qilin with its horned head; the ebony horn in the middle of the Kirin's head making a scraping sound on the Qilin's scaled neck. As the Kirin rears up the lion Shikigami shouts out, "Enough!"

The Kirin's front hooves land on the ground a few inches away from the Qilin's head. The Qilin glares at the Kirin as the hoofed beast moves to allow the Qilin to get to its feet. The Kirin acts like it doesn't notice the heated glare being sent to the back of its head and glances at him and then at the lion Shikigami coolly. "Yukio…" The Qilin growls loud enough for all to hear.

"Natsu! Yukio! What's the meaning of this disruption?" The lion demands of the pair. "Haru, Yukio's trying to take Hana's place as the Shadow representative!" The Qilin named Natsu informs the lion now known as Haru while Yukio doesn't seem ashamed in the slightest at what Natsu has said.

He studies Yukio as Haru tries to salvage the situation with the fourth group of representatives. Unlike Natsu the Qilin, Yukio's build is much more slender and his face isn't the dog crossed with dragon face but that of a deer. Both Yukio and Natsu were the tallest of the full beast Shikigami by two inches for Natsu and three and a bit for Yukio. Yukio's hooves are the same shade of black as his single horn. Yukio's furry mane is a black with a shine of blue in it with Yukio's scales and face being steel grey in colour. What stroke him was Yukio's eyes, unlike the other Shadow representatives, Yukio's eyes aren't red but silvery blue. All in all, Yukio does invision what he wanted his Kirin Shikigami character to look like, only with a different colour scheme and representing a different element.

He bites his lip, his eyes going towards the first three groups, then to Haru and Hatsu, and back at Yukio. He kind of feels bad for whom he wants to pick but he really thinks it would be for the best if he picks that one out since the Shikigami did do this in order to be brought to light…

-D

He opens his eyes and finds himself staring at the resting head of Yukio. He blinks a few times before he sighs. He rolls onto his back and then sits up, hoping not to disturb the Shikigami resting on his bed. He swings his legs over the side of the bed and gets out of it. He heads straight to the bathroom to use it before leaving it without having a shower, which was kind of impossible since he's not tall enough to move the shower head and he doesn't want to draw out a bath since it would take too long.

Once he's back in the room, he begins to switch out his pyjamas for his school uniform. As his mother calls him down for breakfast, Yukio wakes up. They stare at each other for a few minutes, neither of them saying anything right away before he asks, "Do you need to eat? And can my mom see you?" He had been divided on issues dealing with out Shikigami go unnoticed by non-bonded humans, he had this idea that they were invisible and ghost like because they wanted to be invisible and ghost like with his other idea being they just couldn't be seen outside of battle because their magic was dormant and only sparks into being when battling with other Shikigami.

"I'm not hungry right now, I think in about a week I will be though. As to if your mother can see me, she can't and that goes for everyone not bonded to a Shikigami." Yukio answers and he relaxes. "So, what are you going to do while I'm at school?" He asks and Yukio blinks blankly at him. "What's school?" Yukio finally asks and he scratches the side of his head as he thinks of the best way to describe what school is.

"It's a building where kids go to for five days out of the week. Between seven thirty to three." He replies and Yukio moves off the bed, clearing thinking about something. "What happens in this school?" Yukio asks and he replies, "We attend lessons and by the end of the day, we get homework and assignments that are for us to work on while at home." Yukio frowns before asking, "So you go to this school place in order to learn history and such?" He nods his head; it's not long before his stomach growls, reminding him that he needs to fill it before he goes to school.

Yukio looks amused about that as his hand goes to his midsection. "I think we should save the Q & A for later, I think you best be heading down stairs to eat something." Yukio muses lightly and he nods rapidly before leaving the room with his school bag, leaving Yukio in the room alone.

**K-O** Yukio

He watches as the boy leaves the room. He decides to wait until Keiji was gone before exploring the rest of the house without causing a scene with Keiji's mother. He glances around the room, studying the things on the shelves, the posters on the wall, and the cloths on the floor.

He moves towards the window and looks out of it, he watches as cars move about on the street. It's been about a century since he's partnered up with a different species in order to participate in the tournament and he's privately glad that his risk had been worth it, he clearly remember how the red haired boy had reacted when Shing had done his entrance and gambled that if he does something similar, he might just catch more then just a smile on the child's face.

He had proven right and here he was, in the boy's room as the boy's partner and he wouldn't have it any other way. _'Keiji-kun… you'll win this with me by your side and I'll regain my honour at the same time. When the time comes, we'll show them that this wasn't a mistake.'_ He tells himself confidently.

The Word List:

Kodomo - child

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


	10. Battle of the Shikigami part 5

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5

He arrives at the meeting place that they've come to consider their's since the day they hooked up. He couldn't help but wonder if he wasn't the only one to be visited last night and wants to see if any of the others had been visited and if they had, who their Shikigami were. Though he was surprise to find out that he was the first one to arrive, it wasn't long before Yolei arrives, she doesn't live that far from the school so she tended to sleep in a bit longer then they do.

"Hey… Sen-chan!" He says when he notices that there were some kids around, though they're still having some trouble using the names associated with the bodies they've found themselves in. "Hey… err, Keiji-kun." Yolei replies. "How was your evening?" He asks and Yolei gives him a questioning as well as measuring look. "Eventful." Yolei replies and he grins as he replies, "Mine too." Yolei gives him a slightly startled look before she seems to relax and grins slightly as they wait for the rest of the group to arrive.

**K-O** Gennai

He sits down at the table and studies Haru, the humanoid lion that's slightly shorter then himself. The dark brown hair of Haru contrasts the tamed golden hues of the rest of Haru's general fur. Haru's wearing a white T-shirt with a pair of grey pants with a black belt around the Shikigami's waist. Around Haru's neck was a necklace of nine white fang beads. Haru's face was felinish with the Shikigami being Plantigrade, flat footed.

He does remember what happened last night, though he rather hoped it was just a dream since he's got enough on his plate without adding this tournament that'll be happening within eight years time. It really doesn't help that not only does he have a new appearance but it's likely that so do those Digidestine that showed up for that meeting. Which kind of makes the job of locating and contacting them nearly impossible, though it doesn't help matter much that he has to maintain the persona of Mizuki Seiko, a high school student attending his last year of high school who's also the solo heir to a highly wealthy family. _'And let's not forget boyfriend to one Ouji Hayao, also finishing high school this year and star basket ball player.'_ He added silently to himself.

"Ok, so Hayao can't see you, who else can't see you?" He asks Haru as the lion Shikigami leans on the wall where the fridge is placed in the apartment. Haru looks thoughtful and uncrosses his arms before answering his question, "Only those also bonded with Shikigami can see me, can hear me outside of a battle. When a battle is in session, then it doesn't matter if they're bonded to a Shikigami or not since our magic is active. It's an odd turn of events but more often a benefit since it means that people can't capture what they can't find, eh Seiko-kun?"

He nods in agreement; it reminds him of what he had been doing between the restoration of the Digital world and before Ken journeyed into the Digital world in hopes of conquering it. Sure, he cloned himself to speed up the process but it was his assignment and had free rein to do it as he saw fit. Now he's not only involved in this, but he's one of those affected by what's going on and he doesn't particularly like it since he lacks information about their situation and how to undo it.

"So then, what's this tournament all about?" He asks Haru after the Shikigami sits down at the table. "The tournament is more like a challenge for you, our partner then for us. It's to see which of us has managed to not only teach you magic but also to see how you use that knowledge. The prize is wish; you could this wish for anything you want really as long as it has nothing to do with resurrecting the dead." Haru tells him and he sighs. "I'm guessing that what's risen isn't what people expect, huh?" He asks and Haru nods in agreement. "It's just not pretty what arrives or even if it's pretty it's not … uhm, how shall I put this, not right in the mental department." Haru answers as best as he can. He snorts softly; he could only guess what kind of mayhem was caused by such resurrected beings.

He glances at the clock on the wall, he sighs and turning back to Haru, "Could we continue this discussion later? I got to be heading off right now before I'm late for my class." Haru shrugs as he replies, "We can discuss this anytime you want, I'm here to teach you after all." He thinks about that when he climbs to his feet and pushes the chair back to its usual position at the table. "Ok, see you around five then." He says as he shoulder's his school bag as he exits the kitchen, making a bee line for the apartment door that leads into the hall way.

**K-O** Yolei

Its lunch time and they've gathered around one of the tables. The other kids had learnt to leave them alone when they're all together. Though they're expected to hang out with different people, the kids were adjusting to the fact that they're friends, though it seems that Mimi's having trouble convincing others that she's over her tomboy stage, though Mimi was enjoying hanging out with her 'cousin' Ranma and his two friends.

So far, they're eating their lunches before they exchange news of what happened last night. Finally most of the group has finished eating; Joe's still munching away at his chips though. "Ok, did anything happen to you guys last night? You know, like meeting strange monsters that call themselves Shikigami?" She breaks the silence with that question.

"You mean you partnered up with one too? What a relief! Here we thought that we're the only ones!" Mimi says in delight. Sora sighs with Izzy and Joe perking up. "Well the thing is, you guys might not know this, but I was working on a manga called Battle of the Shikigami." Takato began, she's not the only one to turn and stare at the Tamer. "Ok, I'm guessing that some how, we're living your manga. So, what happens at this tournament?" Joe asks and Takato shifts his weight slightly, a sign that Takato's got some bad news to tell them.

"Well you see, I only got the first rough draft done for the first volume of the manga. I only got jot notes and half baked ideas about what I wanted in the manga." Takato tells them truthfully. Her mouth opens up a bit as she blinks as she absorbs this bit of news. She really doesn't know what to think, they were currently in some kind of world based off of something Takato was working on, they can't really blame the current red head for this and yet she really wants to strangle him for not finishing his plot outline. But that's unfair since how could Takato know that this would happen.

"You know, it's like the universe likes using your artistic abilities to cause chaos for you and those close to you." Sora muses thoughtfully out loud. "Well if it helps, I think I can predict the effects of being bonded with a Shikigami will have on us." Takato replies, his face slightly red from what Sora had said.

"What do you mean by effects?" Joe asks. "Well, you know how this kind of partnership usually increases the … nonhuman member of the partnership, right? Like them being capable of more feats just by being partnered with humans, right? Well, I kind of decided that not only will those partnered with the Shikigami gain the ability to do magic that the Shikigami will teach us for us to use it as support for Shikigami fights but also added a few bonus benefits." Takato tells them, they all lean forward, she really wanted to know just what Takato had envisioned when he thought this up and if it's too embarrassing as well.

"You know how sometimes in these kind of stories, people are thought to have died by means of bullets, being in a burning building, and etc. etc.? I kind of decided that I'd make those partnered with the Shikigami unable to die before the tournament. I'm not saying we're Super Man or anything, only that we can recover from any kind of accident, be it from being shot in the head to being dumped into a vat of acid in about a month's time depending on the kind of accident." Takato says and she's kind of speechless about that. "You mean we're, like, immortal?" Mimi asks and Takato nods.

"We also will find using spells based around our partner elements easier to master then the other elements as well. We also gain the ability to sleep less then is considered normal, giving us more time to study or practice magic. During battles anyone who's seen us helping out our partners won't be able to ID us, allowing us to still have a relatively normal life considering the Shikigami and all." Takato adds, she can't help but be highly impressed with the kind of thought Takato put into the relationship between the Shikigami and those bonded to them. It seems as if they don't have to worry about dying anytime soon, which is a huge relief seeing how it means that it increases their chances of figuring out how to get out of this reality based off of Takato's manga idea.

"Ok, now that we've learnt that, I think we should reveal who's partnered with which Shikigami." Izzy says after a few minutes of silence, they agreed and Joe begins. "The Shikigami I'm partners with is Anji of the Shadow Shikigami. She's a purple five tailed fox that stands three feet in height and is a little over four feet in length. She's wearing a blue scarf around her neck and has grey markings behind her ears, for socks, and at the tips of her five tails. Her eyes are yellow."

"You measured her, didn't you?" Mimi asks Joe after two minutes of silence. Joe blushes as he gives them a sharp nod at Mimi's statement. Mimi then decides it's her turn to tell them about her partner. "My partner is Shing of the Wind Shikigami. I'm not sure how tall he is though; he's a brown monkey that's wearing a yellowish green vest with white cloth for waist and wrist bands, though I think he would look much better in red or even gold." Mimi muses and she nods in agreement with Mimi's choice of colours, already picturing how much better looking Shing would look with a red vest with gold for the waist and wrist bands.

Sora then begins to describe her partner. "I'm partners with Gentaru of the Earth Shikigami. He's about four feet in height and is wearing a jade and onyx necklace with some kind of blue crystal pendent wrapped in silver wire. He wears black fingerless gloves and has a green slash around his waist. He's a dusty gold furred bear with honey coloured fur on his muzzle and belly." Sora tells them.

Next to describe their partner is Izzy. "My partner is Kotaru of the Water Shikigami. Kotaru stands between two feet and three feet and seems to be a few inches over four feet in length. Kotaru wears light green wrist band and on the tip of his tail there's a tiny bell tied around it. Kotaru's scale colouring is teal with undertones of dull pink appearing in a petal pattern on his back with his underside being a sea green." Izzy says, she's slightly impressed with how Izzy described Kotaru's colours, but then, Izzy is one for details and he is Sora's boyfriend. So it's likely that some of Sora's fashion sense rubbed off onto Izzy.

It wasn't long before most of the group glance between the two remaining members, namely Takato and herself, trying to decide which of the two should go first. Takato decided to go first, leaving her to go last. "I'm currently partnered with Yukio of the Shadow Shikigami. Yukio is a Kirin, I don't mean a Qilin since for this world they look totally different with the Qilin having paws instead of hooves," Takato glances at them at that point and continues within a few seconds. "Yukio's single horn and hooves are black. Yukio's mane is a really dark shade of black that has a blue shine in it with Yukio's face and scales being steel grey. He's likely the tallest of the totally beast looking Shikigami and he has blue eyes."

It's not her turn to talk about her partner, Danjou. "My partner is Danjou of the Fire Shikigami. I believe he's a leopard since he has the classic spots of a leopard. He's bright blue with white spots and where you expect white to be, he's an ashy grey. He stands close to four feet in height and is likely five feet in length. He has three pearly looking gems in his forehead, the middle one is larger then the two side ones. His eyes are emerald in colour." She tells them.

They were quiet for a time; it's likely that the others were thinking about the partners they left behind and how much they miss them. She gazes down at the junk on the table, not really seeing it as she's busy picturing Hawkmon in his incarnations from his In-Training form to his DNA form. "It's not like we're replacing them, not really." Izzy says softly, she blinks as she snaps out of her thoughts.

"I mean, think about it. Sure, M… I mean, Suchin's partner's element is Wind but only Palmon's ultimate form, Lillymon, was a flier. Phailin's partner is a ground type instead of a flier, like what Biyomon was. I'm with a water type with Joe being with a … shadow type. We all kind of ended up with the opposite of our partners, well, I think we did." Izzy rambles on, glancing at Takato at the end. She's not the only one who looks thoughtful about what Izzy had pointed out. "I'd like to believe Guilmon's element would be fire, I believe that Renamon could pass as a shadow type." Takato says in his defence.

It's not long before the lunch bell rings, bringing an end to their meeting as they have to repack their things and get to their respective classes. She knows that they all got a lot to think about and wonders how this will affect them as time goes on.

**K-O** Yukio

He wonders through the streets, he grew bore with staying at the house and had decided to find this school that Keiji's attending to check up on his partner. Though he could have easily just teleported to where his partner is, he decided that it would do him some good to stretch his legs and do it the old fashion way. He had passed a few restaurants as well as different kinds of shops on his way through the town of Naidori, he seen the town's name on a few billboards, in search of Yamato Elementary, the name of the school he's searching for.

He pauses as he hears a whoop of laughter and glances down a side street in time to see a monkey Shikigami leap from lamp post to lamp post before climbing up one of the two story buildings. He blinks and stands still for a few seconds before he realises that the monkey Shikigami was heading off in the same direction as he was.

'_What are the chances of two humans that are partnered with Shikigami going to the same school?'_ He muses before setting off once more in search of Yamato Elementary, curious to not only to see who's partners with the monkey Shikigami but his own partner's reaction to seeing the monkey Shikigami. His pace it that of a fast walk, to his ears he can hear the sound of his hooves hitting the pavement of the sidewalk, he makes sure to phase out of existence when he's moving through a large group of people walking on the side walk. Just because he's invisible doesn't mean he can't knock people over or be knocked over.

As he arrives at the school to find not only the monkey Shikigami but also a bear Shikigami, a fox Shikigami, a feline Shikigami, and a reptile Shikigami, though the monkey and the bear Shikigami seem to know each other and as he gets a better look at the monkey Shikigami, he recognize that the monkey was Shing of the Wind, the Shikigami who had been in the third group that was presented before Keiji. It's not long before the five Shikigami to glance at him, each of them were surprised, annoyed, and finally, exasperated.

"That makes it six then. How is it that there could be such a cluster of partners in one place? This is totally unheard of!" The reptile Shikigami snaps, on hearing the voice, he knows that the reptile was male and he sighs. "Well, it seems we'll just have to coup with it, now won't we?" He muses and the bear Shikigami nods in agreement with his declaration.

They remain there, kind of eyeing each other and not saying anything to each other. It takes him a while to realise which element that the other four Shikigami were, since he already knows Shing's element. The bear's element is earth, the reptile's element is water, the feline's element is fire, and the fox's element is shadow, which means all they're missing is a spirit Shikigami and they'd have a complete set of elements within this school yard.

They remain so until a bell rings, startling not only him out of his thoughts but the other Shikigami. They glance at each other and some minutes later, excited kids were exiting out of the should building, he notices the age groups this school focuses on teaching as they all wait for their respective partners. It's likely the others know who his partner was; after all, Keiji had the honour of being the first human to choose his partner from their ranks.

Their wait ends as a group of six exits out of the building together, he notices Keiji's among this group. It was the short haired twin that notices them first and she stops in her tracks, it's not long before the rest of the five also stop and stare at them. "Hey Suchin-chan!" Shing shouts out and waves at the group. He watches in amusement as the group of Shikigami partners look at each other before returning to stare at them.

The Word List:

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


	11. Battle of the Shikigami part 6

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

**K-O** Joe

He glances at his current sleeping uncle who's, once more, passed out on the couch. This was the third time this week that the man's not only made his way here but made it here totally drunk. It seems that his uncle wasn't just a alcoholic but he's also a cop who's been divorced three times now, though the third divorce is hitting the man harder then his previous marriages since his uncle's ex-wife not only got total custody of their then year old daughter but after two years of separation, she's going to be married and moving to China with the man.

While he does sympathize with the man, he finds it highly annoying that his uncle Ouji keeps coming to their apartment when he's wasted out of his mind. He knows that his mother of this reality was slowly growing annoyed with her brother but seems to hope that given enough time, his uncle will recover from his depression and get his act together.

He really didn't know what to do or think, he's totally out of his depth here when it comes to this situation and he didn't like it one bit. As he turns away from his uncle, he glances at the calendar and notices it's Thursday, they got one more day before the weekend arrives. As he heads to the fridge to get himself a drink, he's struck by a brilliant idea.

"Okaasan, I just remembered something. Keiji-kun asked if I could spend the weekend at his house. I can go, can't I?" He asks his mother when she comes out of the washroom. His mother looks surprise and then thoughtful. "Is it Saturday night that you're expected?" She asks him and he nods, not willing to lie again to her.

"I suppose, though I would like to meet your little friend, Riku-chan. How about inviting him to dinner tomorrow night?" His mother asks and he replies, "I'll go phone him now, if that's ok?" His mother nods and he heads off to get his school phone book before heading to his mother's bedroom to use the phone.

He nods to his partner Anji who's currently lying in a pool of sunlight that's coming into the room from the window. Anji glances at him through a droopy eye before rising her head up and yawning. "What are you looking for?" Anji asks and he replies, "The school phone book. I'm going to call Keiji-kun and see if I can't spend Saturday night over at his place and to invite him over for supper tomorrow."

It's been three months since they've become partners to the elemental Shikigami and so far, other then a few verbal arguments going on between the six Shikigami, they got along pretty good, though Shing's the friendlier one out of the six with Yukio being the most reserved Shikigami out of the group. It was kind of odd to envision Takato being partnered to somebody like that, especially considering that Takato's Digimon partner is naïve and outgoing Digimon, but that does seem to be the case here and they're all getting use to the different attitudes of the Shikigami.

He's still kind of recovering from the fact that he's the only one to be partnered up with the solo female Shikigami out of the group. He sighs and shoves those kind of thoughts to the back of his mind as he once more focuses at his self appointed task of finding his school phone book so he can phone Takato to not just invite the current red head to dinner, but to have plans laid out for him to sleep over on Saturday night like his current mother thinks he is.

He finds the phone book hidden under, of all places, his mattress with what appears to be a list of pranks and what he needs to pull them off. He stares at them, having some trouble imagining himself pulling pranks on people. "What did you find?" Anji asks as she gets up off the floor, her interest peeked from his confused expression on his face. He holds the list to Anji so she can see what's written on it.

It's not long before Anji snickers at what's written on the first sheet of paper. "You came up these? Boy do you got a lot to learn when it comes to pranking." The five tailed fox remarks and he makes a protesting noise, he didn't trust his voice at the moment. "I was really angry when I made that." He says after a few minutes of Anji's unwavering stare. "Uh ah." Anji says and he stuffs the list back under his mattress before walking quickly out of the room to get away from Anji's watchful eyes.

Once he's in his single parent's room, he sits on the bed by the phone and begins looking through the book for Takato's first name, Keiji since he can't remember Takato's latest last name, though he'll have to make an effort to not just remember Takato's new last name but the others as well. Luckily for him, Takato's the only one named Keiji going to the school.

"His last name is Sikami? Weird…" He says to himself, for if you take the first two letters off of the last name you'd get Kami which is Japanese for God. It's not long before he's done dialling the phone number and waiting for someone to pick it up.

"Sikami's residence." Takato's voice says over the line. "Hey, Keiji, how's things going?" He says into the phone. "… Riku? Good, I guess, though Yukio's kind of demanding that I should be training instead of talking with you." Takato muses; he could hear a loud snort from Takato's side of the line.

"How often do you train?" He asks after a few seconds to collect his thoughts. "I'd say at least an hour and a half a weekday, four hours on the weekend." Takato muses and he shakes his head, he's slightly amazed about that training routine. "How often does Anji train you?" Takato asks. "About one hour during a weekday and two hours on the weekend." He answers.

"Well, I should have guessed that Yukio was driven from the moment I laid eyes on him." Takato muses, he guesses that Yukio wasn't around to hear that statement, they've been really careful about what they say and act around their partners; they really didn't want to upset them or ever have them find out that they're not just older then what they appear to be but also weren't from this reality.

"Anyways, I was wondering if you would like to come over for supper tomorrow and if I could spend Saturday night at your place." He says, getting to the point as to why he phoned. "I'll have to talk it over with Okaasan first, though I wouldn't be surprise if Yukio's subtle on his protests though." Takato muses and he smiles slightly, it seems that the Kirin's one demanding taskmaster. "So you'll know by tomorrow then?" He asks and Takato replies with a short, "Yea." It's not long before they've said their good-byes and hang up the phone.

It's not long before he's heading back to his room to drop off the phone book before heading to the living room in hopes of watching TV, even though his uncle's sleeping on the couch.

**K-O** Gennai

He glances around the apartment building that hopefully, is where his search will finally bear fruit. The address is to one Sousetsu Nachi, he received this address after Nachi took time out to answer the question on a website he created about a week ago asking parents if their children were acting strangely.

Though Ms Sousetsu had clicked that her son was between the ages of six and ten, he was kind of desperate since the four teens he's looking into turned out to be that the parents were just noticing that their kids were jsut starting to do drug, had joined a gang, or had joined a club they think their parents would disapprove of. Which was why he's decided to try his luck with younger kids since he needs a break from teenage anguish and that there just might be a chance that the Digidestine teens had been transformed into kids.

Other then having an encounter with a highly paranoid resident, he made it to the apartment door unharmed. He knocks on the door and it's not long before the door opens and he finds himself staring down at two young children that were either eight or nine years old. One was a red head with green eyes with the other being a brown haired kid with weary hazel eyes.

"Hello." He says to the two as he tries to look friendly. The two kids study him for a moment then share a look before the red head says, "It's your apartment, Riku-kun." The brown haired kid sighs and retreats into the apartment, leaving him alone with the red head.

"So, who might you be?" He asks the child after a few minutes, slightly unnerved about the fact that the kid wasn't acting like most kids his age, which was, namely, chatting his ear off. "It's only polite to give your name first." The kid remarks, a slight grin gracing the kid's face. "You're right, it is polite. My name is Mizuki Seiko, and who might you be, chibi?" He asks.

He's slightly amused at the annoyed look that flickered across the kid's face at being called chibi. "Well, since you asked so politely, my name is Sikami Keiji, Mizuki-san." Keiji says before looking behind him. He follows the kid's gaze and stares at the purple furred five tailed fox. "And who's this?" The fox asks and though he's focused on the fox, he did notice that Keiji was glancing from the fox to him and back again. "He says his name is Mizuki Seiko." Keiji tells the fox softly.

"She your's?" He then inquiries and both the fox Shikigami and the kid snort softly. "If Yukio hears about that, he'd have my hide." Keiji remarks with amusement and the purple fox's eyes sparkle in amusement as the fox inclines her head in agreement with Keiji's musings of how the boy's partner would react.

Before he can inquire further, Ruki appears with his mother, Sousetsu Nachi. He turns to look at Nachi, though his eyes flicker to the fox for a split second. "Sousetsu-san?" He says to the grown woman before him. "Ah… I don't believe I been expecting you, …" Ms Sousetsu says.

"I'm Mizuki Seiko, I'm here about the survey you did a while back." He says and Ms Sousetsu's eyes widen slightly before she glances down to her son and then to Keiji, he notices that the fox Shikigami looks highly interested in the conversation now that he mentioned a survey. Swiftly Ms Sousetsu arrives at the door, Keiji moves out of the way, though he notices that Keiji and Riku were sharing looks between them. It seems as if they're communicating silently with each other.

He moves out of the door away as Ms Sousetsu enters into the hallway. He follows her as she leads him away from the apartment door. He's unsure what's about to happen but he knows that there's something that Ms Sousetsu wants to talk with him about, he guesses it might have something to do with Riku.

**K-O** Takato

As they settle in front of the TV with Anji, he doubts that they were paying much attention to what's on the TV, it's likely that they're all thinking about what Seiko said about a survey that Joe's current mother had taken. Joe and him would love to find a place and talk about it, they know that kind of action would only cause Anji to feel the need to spy on them so they'll just have to wait until later to talk about it.

Despite this new incident, he's still glad to out of the house and away from Yukio and the kirin's training regiment. He still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the shadow kirin was obsessed with drilling as many subjects relating to magic into his head. It was an odd kind of role reversal since usually the human partner is the one that's usually in leadership role.

'_It's like having a male Rika around.'_ He muses to himself, the recent incident between Seiko and Ms Sousetsu out of his mind for now that he's thinking about his girlfriend. He misses her and is slightly envious of the fact that Joe had Mimi and Sora had Izzy, which puts him in the same boat as Yolei since Ken's not here either and he knows that Yolei must miss the ex-Emperor as well.

It's not until his stomach rumbles does he realise that not only was he hungry but something is burning. "Huh, Riku? I think supper's burning." He says, this causes Joe and Anji to glance at him and then as one, the three of them turn to look into the kitchen. Sure enough, there's a visible funnel of smoke drifting up from the oven.

Joe leaps from the couch and races towards the oven. He gets up and follows his friend; he glances to where Anji's resting before moving behind Joe to see if the meal was salvageable. He glances up at the ceiling, looking for a fire alarm since he's wondering why it's not going off.

"We need to change the battery." Joe explains after noticing that he's looking at the fire alarm. "Oh." He says and Joe has a ghost of a smile on his face before Joe takes out the tinfoil item out of the oven with oven pink and yellow mitts. It's not long before Joe's using one of the mitts to move the smoke from reaching his face.

He grabs a chair and pushes it by the oven so one of them could turn on the fan. Joe does so by handing him one of the mittens for him to use to fan the smoke until Joe gets the fan on. Soon the fan is on and they glance at each other, daring the other to see just how burnt their supper was since neither of them wants to be catch by Joe's mom but after a quick game of rock, paper, scissors he climbs onto the chair and using the fork Joe supplies him, he begins to work on the edge of the tinfoil and uses an oven mitt to help keep the dish from moving around.

After a few minutes and careful manoeuvring on his part, he manages to get the tinfoil off the pasta dish and it seems that other then being a little bit drier then it should be but it seems to be fine. It's not long before their stomachs growl once more and in the end, without Joe's mom being around, they dug into the pasta dish, more then a little eager to have something in their empty stomachs.

"You don't think that maybe, Mizuki-san has… you know, taken your okaasan out on a date?" He asks Joe after they recover the cold dish and have put their dishes into the sink. Joe makes a face but then Joe looks thoughtful about something.

"I think my okaasan might be on the verge of having a break down…" Joe muses softly and he glances sharply to where Anji is resting only to find that the vixen was resting on her left side, he notices how the fox's breathing as slow and shallow. He relaxes and motions for Joe to continue, he could only guess just how out of his depth Joe must be feeling right now for not only is the Doctor in training a kid once more, but his home life was vastly different then what Joe's familiar with.

But then, that holds true for them all since Izzy's suppose to be an unhealthy child, Yolei's an only child, Mimi and Sora were sisters, and he's currently living with a single mother. While he doesn't know much of Joe's home life, from the recycling bin, he knows that an alcoholic visits the apartment regularly and that's most likely the source of the house hold's problems. He sighs as he wonders if this whole thing as some kind of way to break them, but he just might be reading too much into this and settles down to wait for when Joe's ready to talk about it.

**K-O** Gennai

He glances to where his boyfriend is standing as he tries to comfort Nachi. Hayao had come inside after taking longer then expected and found Ms Sousetsu having an emotional breakdown in the stair well. He's most then happy to have his supposed boyfriend help him calm down Sousetsu, though in the end, it's clear that Nachi needs to get away from her brother who regularly comes over plastered out of his mind.

"Nachi-san?" He asks and Hayao walks over to check something. "She's asleep." Hayao says and he lets out a loud sigh of relief, though Hayao also seems to be relieved as well. "So, how are we going to get her to her apartment?" Hayao asks him and he frowns as he considered their opinions. "I'll carry her, though I'll need you to hold the door open." He informs the other teen and Hayao nods in agreement.

Soon he's carrying Ms Sousetsu bridle style through the chair door and Hayao muses, "Well, we know who's going to be the groom for our wedding, don't we?" His face reddens and he sends a slight glare toward Hayao. "Is this really the time to be discussing that?" He asks in a slightly high pitched tone that he curses himself for having.

"It livened up the mood, didn't it?" Hayao counters and he can't help but agree with that Hayao has a point. He sighs and tells Hayao which apartment he needs to knock on. It takes about fifteen minutes before the red head Keiji opens the door and rises an eyebrow at him once the kid glancing from Hayao and Ms Sousetsu.

"We were wondering what was taking so long." Keiji replies as the kid opens the door wide for them. "So, you're Riku-chan?" Hayao says and Keiji snorts softly before replying, "No, I'm Keiji, a friend of Riku-kun. And you are?" "I'm Ouji Hayao, Seiko-chan's boyfriend." Hayao states and Keiji's eyes bug out slightly on hearing that. Keiji glances at him, then at Hayao, then at him, before shaking his head and turning around, if he didn't know any better, he'd say that Keiji knows just what that means, but how would a eight to nine year old know about alternate sexual relationships… unless either of his parents were in one…

The Word List:

Okaasan – Mother

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

San – a term of respect that can be used with the surname or first name

To Be Continued…


	12. Battle of the Shikigami part 7

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7

**K-O** Sora

She was sleeping when Mimi barged into the room and began shaking her awake so they can go visit the park where Ranma's soccer team was currently going to be playing at. She's not the only one who's annoyed about the rude wakening for her partner Shikigami Gentaru snarls and glares at Mimi for disturbing his rest, though within minutes Shing's slapping the back of Gentaru's head.

"Don't snarl at my partner!" Shing announces and Gentaru replies, "I'll snarl and glare at her as long as she keeps waking me up at these ridiculous times!" The two Shikigami start another staring contest between them as Mimi tries to convince her to dress up in the cloths that she's picking out for her.

She gently but firmly puts down the cloths Mimi keeps trying to have her dress in. While she hadn't mind Mimi picking out some cloths for her, back when they were teens, she's slowly becoming highly annoyed with this habit of Mimi's. It's kind of odd how unlike the others that had attended the meeting that Mimi and herself indeed up becoming sisters, twins even.

'_Kari, Takato, and Tai make it seem so… so easy, being siblings. Though Tai did often complain about how Takato never did seem to enjoy soccer or about how Kari had trouble with Takato and Tai meddling with her love life… Still, they seem to handle it without resorting to nit picking at each other.'_ She wonders to herself as she finishes adjusting the hem of her red T-shirt.

She glances at Mimi to study what the Digidestine of Sincerity, currently her 'twin' is wearing a long sleeve green shirt with a company logo on the front. Instead of wearing a pair of jeans, Mimi's wearing a pair of black pants with another set of pockets by her knees with black and blue runners. What raises her eyebrow was the fact that on Mimi's forehead was a pair of teal sunglasses.

"So, are the others going to met us there or is it just going to be Akio, you, and me?" She asks Mimi since she has forgotten who's included in this outing they've had planned for about a month. "Yea, but Riku's also coming too, though Keiji and Sen have family things to attend. I think Riku mentioned that he's spending the night at Keiji's house tonight." Mimi replies and she nods as she remembers that it had been last minute thing that Joe and Takato had planned for tonight.

Soon she's putting on her dull red ball cap and then glances over to where the two Shikigami were positioned in the room. "So, are you two coming with us or are you two going out to explore on your own?" She asks the two and Shing says, "I'll come with you, though I think grumpy want's to go back to hibernating." Her partner shots Shing a sharp glare and gets to his feet.

"Well, I might as well come along in order to keep Shing from trying to steal the soccer ball while it's in play." Gentaru declares and the monkey Shikigami crossing his arms behind his head and turning away from Gentaru in a huff. "It was just that one time, one time! Can't you forget about it?" Shing exclaims with his flexible tail twitching angrily behind him. Gentaru snorts loudly before saying, "Oh yes, it was just a one time thing but the kids are still talking about the 'ghost' that attempted to play."

She smiles slightly, though she does agree with what her partner had said since the incident had been caught by at least four families who were taping the game. It even aired on the news that evening to boot, their just lucky that the Shikigami's can't be seen by non-partnered beings, though it most likely revealed to the partners out there that there's a bonded pair in this town and that someone was partnered with a monkey Shikigami.

As she heads towards the door, she pauses and glances at her partner, Gentaru for a moment before continuing out of her room with them following her. She watches as Shing slides down the hand rail, he does a flip before landing on his feet with his hands up in the air. Gentaru scoffs, "Show off."

"We're leaving now, Otoosan!" Mimi shouts once she's done putting on her white runners. "Just be cautious, Suchin-chan! Keep an eye on your sister, Phailin-chan!" Their father calls out. "I'll try." She replies before exiting out of the house through the front door.

"You'd think he doesn't trust me." Mimi says with a cute pout on her face with her arms cross in front of her chest. "I wonder why." She muses with a slight grin on her face and Gentaru adds, "I can't wait to see how this plays out in your teen years."

Mimi and her exchange amused looks at that before Shing bolts pass them as the monkey shouts, "Last one there is a turtle's shell!" Before she could say anything, Mimi turns and bolts after her partner. She glances in bewilderment at Gentaru, the bear shrugs and she sighs. They follow at a walk, it's likely that Mimi and Shing will make it there before them even if they tried they wouldn't have caught up since they had too much of a head start on them.

"You know, I should look into getting a nickname." She muses out loud as they make it about thirty feet from the house. "Oh? And just what kind of nick name you'd think would work for you?" Gentaru asks and she just shrugs. "Don't know exactly but Phailin's just a mouthful to say is all." She tells her partner.

**K-O** Izzy

He watches as his partner, Kotaru, creates water spheres with water from the small fountain that has come to become their meeting point for when they're hooking up in the park. The salamander Shikigami pauses and glances around the area to make sure that nobody was looking in their direction and within seconds, Kotaru causes the tiny water spheres to freeze and they drop from their two centimetres height into the water's surface. Kotaru glances at him and he sighs as he moves closer to the edge of the fountain.

It seems that Kotaru wants him to get some practice in while they're waiting for the others. He murmurs softly, **"Bubble."** The spot in the water where he's looking seems to be boiling as steady streams of air bubbles break the surface of the water. He stops focusing on that spot and within seconds the bubbling subsides.

He straightens and with his right hand, he holds his index finger a few millimetres above the water's surface. **"Bubble."** He says in much firmer voice and a small bubble filled with water forms under his finger's shadow. Kotaru hisses his approval. He then slowly moves his finger from the water's surface with the tiny sphere of water following a second or two after that.

He continues to concentrate at the task at hand, unlike what Kotaru's other lessons, this one was about control then brute force since it doesn't involve him manipulating large quantities of water. He slowly rotates his wrist and hand so that they're under the tiny water sphere. He smiles slightly as he says, **"Duplicate."**

The tiny sphere shimmers slightly and a mist begins to form around the sphere until it's hidden from view. When the mist clears there's now three tiny water spheres hovering over his hand. Kotaru makes a soft hissing of approval and he then begins to move his hand so that when he releases his magic from supporting this spell, it won't hit his hand and cause it to become wet.

"Akio-kun! Kotaru!" Mimi and Shing shout out with Mimi calling his name and Shing Kotaru's name. Startling him so much that as he looks away he feels the water within those three spheres hit his right hand. He sighs and looks back at his hand. "Hello Suchin-chan. How are you this morning?" He asks, returning the greeting as he wipes his right hand on his shirt.

Mimi embraces him once she's near enough while Shing puts Kotaru into a head lock for a few seconds before Kotaru smacks the energetic primate on the shoulder with his tail. "Ouch!" Shing exclaims as the monkey lets go of his partner's head and attempts to pout as Mimi begins to examine the monkey's shoulder.

It's not long before Sora and her partner Gentaru arrive; he smiles slightly as he notices that she's wearing the shirt he gotten for her two days before. "Hey." Sora says warmly and he nods in her direction before glancing around in hopes of spotting Joe arriving with his partner, Anji.

"Is Riku here yet?" Mimi asks as she begins to scan the surrounding park. "No, but then, he's got a bit of a way to walk too." He points out and Sora nods in agreement.

"So, has the soccer game started up yet?" Mimi asks him and he replies, "They're still waiting for the other team to show." It's not long before they chat about a few things, like the new arcade that's in the mall and about the fact that in about two weeks' time, school will end. They brought up what they might do for Joe, Yolei, and his coming birthdays and even talked about the up coming tourist season that will most likely be arriving in force by the time school's done.

Just as the rival team show up is when Joe arrives with one of Anji's five tails around his waist. Sora and him exchange looks as Mimi races to her boyfriend. "Are you ok, Riku-kun?" Mimi asks in a worried voice. "Last night was… kind of… rough." Anji answers and Joe nods his head, he notices the bangs under Joe's eyes as well as the fact that Joe's eyes are blood shot.

It's not long before Mimi manages to pull Joe away from not just Anji but also them as well. She drags her boyfriend towards a secluded stand of trees, leaving Shing and Anji to hang out with Sora, Kotaru, Gentaru, and himself. They glance at the solo female Shikigami and the fox sighs. "His mom had a break down last night in front of two strange teens, of which one of them is certainly bonded with a Shikigami. It proved to be a very long night, last night." Anji informs them and he felt a pang of worry and guilt in his mid section. Joe's his best friend and he hadn't been there for him.

"I hope he's going to be ok…" Sora says, her statement hanging in the air between them all.

**K-O** Yolei

"Hia ya!" She shouts as she throws a punch. Then she pulls it back and spins on the balls of her feet and kicks the air with her right foot. "Ha!" She shouts, so it continued for about five more minutes before her grandmother calls a halt to her practice session.

'_I don't know how Henry did this.'_ She muses to herself as she walks to where her maternal grandmother was standing. _'But then, Cody's just as into kendo as Henry is into his martial arts. Not much of a difference is there?'_ She adds silently to herself as she waits for her visiting grandmother to address her.

It had certainly came as a surprise when she learnt that she's expected to begin taking karate about three days after she arrived here, in this world, in this body. It seems that before she arrived, it had been decided that she'd follow in her mother's family tradition of learning either kendo or karate. So that's the reason for this visit, it's to see how far she's progressed in her karate as well as to spend some quality time with her grandma Yuka.

Grandma Yuka nods thoughtfully at her as she says, "You're training is coming along nicely." She relaxes slightly and it's not long before her newest grandmother gives her a hug. "Now that the assessment is over, hurry and change so we can go shopping." Her grandma says and she grins as she nods her head. "I shall, Obaachan!" She says before racing back into the house to go change her cloths.

Soon she changes out of her Karate gi and tosses it into the cloths basket. She then puts on a purple long sleeve shirt with white flames on the right sleeve with a company logo on top of a white flame. She puts on a pair of dark blue jeans. She puts on a necklace that contains a gem of fire essence that she created under Danjou's training session; Danjou seemed highly pleased when she created and had told her to wear it proudly to show her skill.

Soon enough she's done and heads out of her room. She joins up with her grandma out front, by her grandmother's car. It's not long before they're off to the local mall for a shopping trip. She did wonder where Danjou was but figures that the leopard Shikigami was prowling about the neighbourhood; after all, Danjou is a feline.

**K-O** Takato

He glances around the tea house; it seems the place was owned by a great uncle of his. He has to admit, the place is impressive as it has dim lighting, soft relaxing music, and soothing darkish colouring. The few bits of art work were either brown or dark grey faceless statues that look slender since they're curvy and don't seem to have any real corners.

"Uncle Fusao!" His mom says when a slightly aged man with salt and pepper hair approaches them while they're sitting at their table, his mom's drinking green tea and he's drinking apple cider. "Ah, my favourite niece, and this can't be Keiji-kun! He's too tall!" His great uncle Fusao jokingly says before ruffling his spiky red hair. He gives the elderly man a slightly dirty look, which must have looked cute since great-uncle Fusao looks amused and ruffles his hair again.

It's not long before his great uncle joins his mother and himself at the table, the two grown ups chatting away about family matters like who's hired which cousin and who's graduating from which college, so forth and so forth. He tones it out as they gossip about such things when they mentioned something about a distant cousin's occupation of dog breeding.

When he finishes off his cider, a teenage cousin comes to replace it, taking the previously used mug away. It's not long before the same thing happens to his mom's green tea and his great uncle's orange tea. He glances around to the customers that were in the tea house. He's just so bored…

It's not long before they're done chatting and they're done visiting his great uncle. His uncle refuses to accept money for their drinks, claiming that they're his guests and therefore, it's on the house. It's around four o'clock, so they headed to the park to pick up Joe for the sleep over.

He exits out of the car when they arrive by the entrance and he heads towards the usual meeting point, which was a small fountain. He's not disappointed and finds most of the group sitting around it, practicing water magic. He doesn't disturb the group since he's kind of interested in how far they're progressing. He's not surprise to notice about seven to nine tiny water spheres hovering under Izzy's hand, after all, Izzy's partner's element is primary water. Mimi's got at least four tiny water spheres hovering in the air, with Joe having about six, and Sora having about three water spheres.

Within minutes of him arriving, the tiny spheres of water return to the fountain's water supply. "Hey you guys." He calls out once the water spheres were gone, which relieves him since it means it's unlikely that he'll get wet. "Hey Keiji-kun! How was your family thing?" Mimi asks, Joe moves to pick up his overnight bag.

He smiles as he answers, "It was boring, all Okaasan and my uncle talked about were family things, like who hired which cousin and such." It's not long before Joe and him were waving by to the others, it seems that Anji has decided to spend the night at Mimi and Sora's place, it seems that Anji doesn't like the prospect of hanging around with his partner, Yukio without the other Shikigami to back her up.

-D

He woke to Yukio nudging him in the side. He blinks a few times, it takes him a few minutes to remember where he is and who Yukio was. "What's wrong?" He asks between yawns. "Your friend." The Shikigami says in a flat tone.

It takes him another minute to realise that the kirin was talking about Joe and not about Henry or TK. It takes him a few seconds before he manages to move his tired body. He shivers as he feels the cold air that's circulating throughout the house. _'Must be the air conditioner.'_ He muses as he tip toes towards Joe, the only part of his feet that were touching the floor were the part with the toes.

He finds Joe currently rolling about the futon with sheets getting wrapped around parts of his body. It takes a few minutes before he realises just what Joe's nightmare is based on. He kneels down on the floor and begins to shake Joe in hopes of waking him. He puts his hand over Joe's mouth to keep Joe form shouting out.

"Riku, Riku! Calm down, you were having a bad dream." He says in a harsh whisper. It takes Joe a few moments to calm himself and he removes his hand from his mouth. "Want to talk about it?" He asks after a few minutes, Joe sits up and is staring down at his hands.

"It's just that… they didn't recognize me, at all." Joe tells him. He nods in sympathy. "Yea, I've had that happen to me a few times. It's going to be strange, you know, when the time comes. Just think about this way, at least you have us to support ya. I mean, Suchin and you are… you fit together." He says and Joe smiles softly at the mention of Mimi's latest name.

"I feel better, thanks… Keiji." Joe says and he nods. Joe once more settles down and he walks back to his futon. It takes a few minutes before he falls back asleep.

To Readers:

Ok, so I'm taking suggestions for Sora's nick name and by the next chapter I'll have the results of said choice names, so if you got a name you want to be used, you better either send me a private messenger or review.

The Word List:

Otoosan – Father

Okaasan - Mother

Obaachan – Grandma

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


	13. Battle of the Shikigami part 8

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8

He glances at the calendar with a circle around today's date. Today is Yolei's birthday and he then glances over to where the present for her birthday, he got her two manga that he hoped Yolei will like. He then renews towel drying his wet locks of red hair.

Soon he's done brushing his hair and begins to dig through his dresser drawers in search for something nice to wear. He picks out a white T-shirt with an image of a black canine paw print on the front. He picks up out a blue vest that matches the blue jeans he's going to be wearing. He glances at himself in the mirror before glancing to where Yukio is standing.

"So, you're not coming with me today?" He asks Yukio once more. Yukio's sharp blue eyes study him before the kirin shrugs as best as he can. "I believe I'll enjoy some peace and quiet while you're gone." Yukio says and he cocks his head to the side, his lips pressed in a firm line. Yukio has already turned around when he smirks slightly as a mischievous idea blooms within his mind.

He moves as quietly as he can towards the legendary beast Shikigami and then launches himself at the kirin, wrapping his arms firmly around Yukio's neck with his legs locking onto the kirin's back. Startled, Yukio attempts to get him off by leaping into the air and then rolling onto his back with him on the Shikigami's back. It takes a few minutes for Yukio to calm down.

"What's the meaning of this? Why are you on my back?" Yukio hisses at him. "You're coming with me to the party and I won't get off until you agree to come!" He snaps at his partner and then adds gently, "You're alone way too often, Yukio-kun. You should get to know the other Shikigami since it's unlikely that I'll stop being friends with their partners."

Yukio sighs and cranks his head to look at him, then in a few seconds, he finds himself lying on the floor with Yukio standing to his right, looking down at him. He gives the kirin the best cute pout, he attempts to mimic Calumon's innocent questioning gaze as best as he can in hopes of eroding through Yukio's guard so that the shadow Shikigami will agree to come with him. "Please, Yu-kun? It can't be that hard to hang out with the other Shikigami, can it?" He asks once he's sitting on the floor, staring into Yukio's blue eyes.

After a few minutes Yukio sighs in defeat and he silently cheers in him mind over this minor victory. "I'll go, I'll go, just stop with that expression." Yukio says and he smiles brightly at his partner and gets up to give his partner a hug. He also makes a mental note to call the kirin Yu-kun when he wants the Shikigami to cave. He lets go of the slightly stunned Shikigami and grabs his wrapped present, he glances over his shoulder to make sure that Yukio was ready to go before heading out of his room.

**K-O** Yukio

He watches from his position on the roof of the building as the children enjoy the cool waters of the pool, particularly one child, his partner Keiji. It had surprised him when Keiji expressed desire for him to join him at this party, to be social with the other Shikigami that are current bonded with his core group of friends. He had been more then reluctant to socialize with the Shikigami since they know more about him then his own partner does.

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Anji glancing his way with a slight frown on her muzzled face. So far, they're the only ones stationed on the roof of the building that houses the washrooms and entrance/exit. Shing's hanging around by the tree a few feet from the building and outside of the fence with Gentaru and Kotaru resting under the same tree. Danjou's hanging around the table that has food, drinks, towels, and lotions on top.

"I don't get it, why him?" Anji finally asks softly and he glances at her. He frowns as best as he can and replies, "He has so much power… I couldn't help but be attracted to him…" Anji snorts softly before countering, "It's not about power; it's about control. He may be powerful but that doesn't mean that he's going to unlock the second stage of our partnership." He snorts softly and says thoughtfully, "There's more to the boy then meets our eyes, though I think that includes his friends too… Haven't you noticed anything… odd in their manners?"

Anji's tails slash through the air in a sharp manner as the vixen frowns in thought. "It's just that, Riku-kun acts… older then he's age is all, but then, considering his situation at home, that's not unusual." Anji finally admits after a few minutes, though she's not looking at him. He studies her for a moment as he considers if that applies to Keiji's situation as well.

"He's hard to read." He admits softly as he turns to look at the red head that's currently in a water war with the birthday girl, Sen. "He seems kind of, you know, out in the open when it comes to his emotions." Anji says. "Look at him, look how he acts with Sen and the other compared to how he acts with Sen's other guests. Look how they seem to group together." He says as Keiji and Sen climbs out of the pool with two other children whom names he's forgotten follow them. Sen shoves Keiji slightly after he says something to her that causes her to redden.

The two settle down by Suchin then by the slightly large group of kids chatting away about three feet away. "They really prefer each other's company, don't they?" Anji muses after a few minutes of observation. "It seems that Keiji's the leader." Anji adds as Akio, Phailin, and Riku nod first to Keiji then to Sen and Suchin as they join them on the ragged blanket Sen's parents brought for them to sit on. True, the two groups were chatting away between them, but the way they were arranged, it told people who's closest to the birthday girl and who's not.

"Maybe we're reading too much into this." Anji suggests and he sighs as he flicks his tail and head slightly. So ends their conversation as he doesn't feel so chatty any more, he's not surprised when Anji heads off the roof in order to get out of the heat, he doesn't mind the heat just yet so he remains up on top of the roof, watching how six partnered humans interact with each other.

**K-O** Gennai

It's been a whole year since he arrived in this world, in this body, and with the name of one Mizuki Seiko. _'Let's not forget waking up in the same bed as Hayao.'_ He muses to himself as he recalls the shock of waking up next to someone, a guy someone at that. Though he's come to rely on the often times flamboyant man he's sharing the apartment with, he never could bring himself to confide in the man.

Haru changes the channel; bring him to focus onto the humanoid lion Shikigami. He's grown use to having the Shikigami around and even doing the magic tricks Haru's been teaching him. Though he's not any closer to locating the Digidestine that arrived in this world with him since he stop searching for them in order to help the Sousetsu family since they're still recovering from the rough patch with Riku's uncle who's currently in a rehab program.

In the last year Hayao and he had become Riku like elder siblings to the kid and it's not unusual for Riku to spend a few days at their apartment. Like today, Riku and his partner Anji had spent the night after a fun day yesterday at the carnival that included his group of friends which Keiji was part of. It also turned out that each member of that group were also partners to Shikigami though when he mentioned to Haru about Keiji's Shikigami, a shadow kirin, Haru had this strange distant look on his fuzzy face for a few seconds before his partner snapped out of it.

"What's on?" Anji asks as she exits out of the guest room that's kind of doubling as their bedroom when they stay over. "Is Riku up then?" Haru asks the fox, he glances towards the kitchen to see if Hayao was paying any to what's going on in the living room. "No, he's pretty much fast asleep, though he does seem to be talking in his sleep. He was muttering something about a girl named Mimi…" Anji muses and he frowns slightly, though he does get up.

"I'll go check on him if you two don't mind." He says softly and heads to the bedroom that Anji came out of. He just had to hear it for himself, to see if Riku could be…

He found Riku resting on the bed, hugging the pillow like a child would a teddy bear. He slowly advanced towards the bed, being careful not to make too much noise since he didn't want Riku to be fully awake for this interview. It takes a whole four to six minutes of him slowly stalking towards the bed, pausing every so often when his foot caused the floor to crack or creek.

'_If anyone sees me now, they'd think I'm some kind of stalker.'_ He muses dryly to himself. He studies the sleeping boy, Riku's gotten taller over the last year and seems to be trying to keep his hair longer then what it use to be. He pays close attention to Riku's facial features and find it hard to envision Riku as Izzy, Joe, or Takato.

"Mimi…" Riku says in a sigh and cuddles the pillow a bit more with a slight smile on his face. "…" He stares at the boy before chuckling softly. _'It seems they've been in front of me all along.'_ He muses before leaning over towards the kid and saying, "Gomamon's trying to hide your homework, Joe."

He literally had to jump back as Joe bolts upright with a groan. "Gomamon!" It takes Joe a few minutes before he realised that he's been tricked. "And here I thought my attempts at locating you guys were going to be fruitless." He says in amusement. "Wait, you're Gennai?" Joe asks him as Joe narrows his eyes to study him. "Well, I didn't expect to find you guys to be kids under the age of ten. Guess it evens out, huh?" He says and Joe sighs in defeat. "Guess so." Joe admits.

"So, which is which?" He asks after a few minutes. Joe smiles slightly before answering, "Takato's Keiji, Izzy's Akio, Mimi's Suchin, Sora's Phailin, and Yolei's Sen." He nods thoughtfully as he puts names with faces, though he's kind of surprise to find out that Sora and Mimi were the twins, he would have bet that it would be Mimi and Yolei…

"Oh, yea, you know that Takato's working on some kind of side project, right?" Joe says, glancing at him. He nods and it's not long before he finds himself totally speechless about what Joe tells him. He can't help but wonder if this might not have something to do with the meeting they were holding about the viruses attacking Lancer and Heart's company websites.

**K-O** Takato

He stares at Haru, not really glancing at Seiko, or Gennai as it seems that the young adult turned out to be. Truthfully, he never expected to meet up with the lion Shikigami until they were fourteen and the tournament had begun, but here they were, standing before each other once more, though they're suppose to act like they didn't know each other though like when he 'officially' met Shing in the school yard.

Though, luckily, he's not the only one staring at the lion Shikigami, but it's likely that they never expected Shikigami to get that tall. Though it really did shock him to find out that Seiko's actually Gennai, but in the end, it kind of made sense since Gennai's site had this quiz about people's kids acting out of character and other such oddities.

He sighs and glances away from the spirit Shikigami to look where his own partner is standing. He smiles slightly apologetically to his partner and Yukio's mane seems to flatten slightly, not very noticeable if the observer didn't know what to look for. He glances to the other Shikigami; he notices that they're all seem to be highly amused with the attention Haru's receiving.

After a few minutes, everyone's done eyeing Haru; they then begin to introduce their partners to Gennai, they all know that all the Shikigami knew a bit of each other so there didn't need to be any introductions to Haru and vice versa. Once that's over and done with silence descends over the group as they can't seem to think of anything else to do, they can't discuss their situation with the Shikigami hanging around so they kind of sat around the park, each of them at a lose at what to do now.

"So, who wants to go caught a movie at the cheap theatre?" Gennai finally asks since he's the grown up. Murmurs of approval echo at that motion and it's not long before they're heading towards Gennai's vehicle to get to the movie theatre that's located on the other side of town.

-D

He studies Karal and his partner Ulrich, a horse type of the water Shikigami. This would be Yukio and his third battle in the last two weeks, in his grand total of battles; this will be counted as his eighty seventh battle since the challengers started showing up when they started turning eleven. Yukio's horn shimmers for a second which was the signal that Yukio's now visible and a mist seems to appear around Ulrich's hooves for a split second before vanishing, also signalling that he's visible too.

He shouts out, **"Shroud!"** Yukio seems to meld with the shadows that he summoned that span out for about ten feet from where Yukio was standing. **"Wind!"** Karal shouts, summoning winds in hopes of making his shadows vanish. Ulrich rears up as Yukio attempts to ram Ulrich from the side, Yukio ducks down as the teal coloured horse Shikigami tries to nail his partner with his blue front hooves.

"**Flare!"** He shouts and a ball of flame appears between Ulrich and Yukio before exploding, causing his opponents to be blinded for a moment, allowing Yukio to rear up and lash out with his own hooves. **"Frost!"** Karal shouts, covering his partner in thin ice that acts like armour.

"**Fury!"** He counters, it increases Yukio's second blow, just enough to crack a small part of the armour. His partner backs up since Ulrich can't really move from that spot without forcing the frost armour to vanish and the same goes if Ulrich attempts to attack Yukio physically. **"Winter!"** Karal shouts, the field begins to mist over and within seconds, the ground is now covered in a thin coat of snow with ice likely to be hidden underneath it.

He smirks slightly as he muses to himself. _'Typical water user, if they're not using water, they stick with the next best thing, ice. I really hate to do this, but, he should have thought about it before he did the field change.'_ He relaxes and allows himself to smirk slightly, shaking his head for a few seconds before calling out, "**Spike!"**

The layer of ice hidden under the snow spike out of the ground, Ulrich breaks free of the armour to avoid the spike that was coming from under him. The moment Yukio heard him call out that spell, the kirin became a flurry of movement and was more then able to catch Ulrich off guard since Ulrich was too busy dodging to evade the incoming attack.

When Ulrich went flying, he ended up impaling on the spikes that were growing out of the sides of the large spikes. The match ends as Ulrich flashes a rainbow of shades of blue. With the victor decided, the magic used vanishes and the landscape returns to looking the way it did before the battle started.

"**Growth."** Karal says to his Shikigami partner and Ulrich stirs, after a few seconds, the horse stands up. "You fought well; I hope to see your full growth in the upcoming tournament." Ulrich says and Yukio replies, "Hopefully, that will give you two enough time to increase your usage of other elements." Karal looks slightly sour on hearing that, but nods to him before he turns away.

"It seems that's an old argument between them." Yukio muses and he nods in agreement. "It does seem that way. We might as well head home, I doubt he'll cause any trouble for the others tonight." He says and his partner nods in agreement. "Though I think you should phone Sen to let her know since she is the closest one just in case." Yukio says, he nods and takes out his cell phone as they walk away.

Over the years, Yukio has grown to become a bit more of a team player and though the upcoming tournament was only a mouth away, Yukio still hasn't resorted back to the way he was when they first met. Though the development seems to be mutual as the other Shikigami had, in time, lowered their guards around the kirin and included the loner in their conversations and activities. This was both a good thing and a slightly bad thing since it met that Yukio let up on his training session but by chatting with the other Shikigami, Yukio came up with a much more creative way to train him, which once included leaving him in an ice rink for a whole night, taking most of his cloths so he was forced to rely on his ability with fire to keep him from freezing within the freezing building.

'_I'd almost think he's been watching Ranma ½ if I didn't know better, after all, very few of the shows that we were familiar with exist in this world or what bands and songs we know of. I wonder if the wish will return us to our world or not.'_ He wonders as he waits for Yolei to pick up the phone. _'I miss Guilmon, Rika, Kari, and the rest of them. I wonder if they've given up looking for us after all this time…'_

The Word List:

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


	14. Battle of the Shikigami part 9

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9

**K-O** Izzy

He watches the rainbow display that he's currently powering shimmer through the air before the window. Out of the group of seven, he's the one that has greater control over his element, though he's smart enough not to have his primary battle strategy, especially since his partner Shikigami's a water type. He often finds himself preferring to use the element wind and either shadow or spirit in most of his battles.

'_It's surprising easy to thrown off balance my opponents just by using any element other then my primary one. Just because they use their primary element in battle doesn't mean their opponent will. It helps being a generalist when it comes to fighting since it's harder for your enemy to predict what kind of spells you'll be using.'_ He muses to himself as he allows the misty rainbow to disperse and he gets up out of bed.

He glances to where his partner, Kotaru, was resting. He smiles slightly as he watches Kotaru's sides expand and retract. The salamander has become as dear to him as his Digimon partner Tentomon and when this is all over, he knows he'll miss the teal coloured salamander when they leave this world behind. He brushes his unspiked bangs from his face as he stands up.

He heads straight to the bathroom in order to have a shower and to put his hair up in the ponytail that seemed to suit his style as Raiga Akio. Once out of the shower and when he's satisfied that his hair was dry, he then runs his hands through his hair, making sure that he grabs most of it with his hands. One that's done, he then uses his left hand to grab his hair tie and ties it up.

He then puts in his left eye brow earring as well as his right ear earrings; there were three in total for his right ear. Once that's done, he then takes some hair gel and begins to spike his bangs the way he wants them. He notices that his 'bad' boy look was fine and then heads into his room to put on the white tank top and his faded blue jeans. He stands in front of his bedroom mirror, making sure that his hair hadn't suffered much from putting on his tank top and then turns to leave his room.

He knew that before all of this, he wouldn't given too much thought to his appearance but like the rest of the gang, he wanted to try something different for a change, to see what it's like to act the almost opposite of what he normally would. Which lead him to give the typical bad boy look a chance and surprisingly enough, he couldn't help but find it easier to act the role of Raiga Akio, son of Raiga Waki and Raiga Kanami, partner of Kotaru of the Water Shikigami.

He's also tried different hobbies, like skateboarding, blading, and, ironically enough, acting. Through such activities he's been labelled many things but nerd, geek, or point Dexter weren't among his titles since few people know about his ability with computers or about his good grades. It's odd living a life style that's totally different then what he had pursued back in his first childhood and found himself changed by it, just like the others.

But the changes weren't just lifestyle either, he's current body was completely different then his original one. He's not among the short kids of his class, he stands about five and half feet and given time, he just might grow to stand a little over six feet. His build wasn't bulky but he's not skinny either, his balance was better then it had been but then, he needed it in order to do the kind of stunts that one does with a skateboard and on roller blades. His skin has a light tan on it from his many hours outside. He was stunned to find that more then a few girls thought him cute or ruggedly handsome, though Sora doesn't get too jealous now a days when she sees other girls flirting with him, he knows better then to flirt with girls since he's lucky that despite everything Sora and him continue to enjoy a close and comfortable relationship.

He smiles to his current mother and nods a greeting to his current father; they greet him warmly as he settles down at the table. There wasn't much in the way of conversation but he doesn't mind as he waits for the toast to finish popping out of the toaster. His mind was else where, reminiscing about the changes that occurred over the group since they got here.

Joe's been trying out for sports, believe it or not. This kind of makes Joe the jock of the group when such a title usually went to Tai or Davis or even Ken since those three are totally into soccer and were more then willing to talk about it whenever the topic of conversation made its way to sports. Joe's most notable sport was basketball with baseball being a close second. Joe's only a half an inch shorter then him but made up for it by having a much more athletic build then he did. Much like all of them, Joe's maintained high grades though like him, few of their peers would suspect it.

Takato's decided to try out being a Goth, which kind of clashes with his up beat attitude and his resistance to dying his hair black and using make up to make himself look pale or for anything. Out of the group, he's considered the shortest and scrawniest of them all but then, he does help that illusion by wearing baggy cloths, which hide his frame. Like him, Takato has piercing, though Takato's has two for his right eyebrow and at least five for both of his ears. Takato's also been wearing black leather armbands and more then a few chains on his person, though when Takato's out on patrol, he leaves the chains at home and he wears a bright red bandana over his forehead with black triangle markings on it that remind him of the kind of markings Guilmon has.

His thoughts land on Yolei, AKA Dotou Sen, who's world famous for being a bit of a super heroine as she's like the American cartoon show heroine named Kim Possible. Much like that cartoon heroine, Yolei's got a website that Gennai manages for her. It kind of started with someone left an E-mail at the site asking for assistance at this burger place that was currently being held up. Not only did she reframe from using magic to defeat the three criminals but the female populous loved her as a remould for girl power. It wasn't until her defeating one of the three humans rogues that had been partnered with a Shikigami but they had a huge falling out when the human began using his magic for petty crimes did Yolei solidify her career as a heroine for real.

'_As for her 'side-kick,' well, we've all taken our turns helping her out.'_ He muses as he notices a picture of Yolei on the front with Mimi in the background; the picture was taken in New York, New York. The article most likely continues on a different page, detailing the events of how Yolei and Mimi folded some terrorist attack on a library, if he correctly identifies the building behind them.

Even as he observes the picture, he couldn't help but smile slightly as he studies Mimi's picture since it really helps to obscure her gender. It's more then likely that instead of putting Yashiro Suchin, the reporter put her nickname, which was Flash. She earned that nickname from her achievements in sprinting, mostly from 'gone in a flash' or 'it's a flash finish.'

'_She goes from what someone would turn a 'girly-girl' to a total tom-boy. She even out does Rika and Sora's attempts by a good three miles. It's not surprising that she's not offended by being called a he instead of a she. But then, I think it amuses her, being considered one of the 'guys.''_ He muses as he recalls just how far Mimi's gone to be the total opposite of acting dizzy and shallow. Though it's likely when they get back to their world, Mimi will most likely find a midpoint between her two lifestyle experiences. Though some people think that Joe and Mimi's relationship were a guy and guy relationship, though only those that are close friends know that Yashiro 'Flash' was Yashiro Suchin, a fourteen year old young woman.

He then focuses on his girl friend, Sora or as this world knows her, Yashiro 'Blue' Phailin. Out of the group of six Digidestine, she's the only one who's occupations haven't changed much from what she was doing back home, only she's more into computers then before. She arrived at her nickname from how depressed she sometimes got and the nickname stuck, though it seems that while Sora would have preferred a different nickname, she got over it and seems to prefer being called Blue then being called Phailin.

Then there's Gennai, the seventh member of their group, though he's not often involved in what they're doing. Over time, Gennai learning what it's like to live a human life, even if he's suppose to be gay and very wealthy. While they don't know what's going on between Gennai and Hayao now a days, it seems as if Gennai's come to accept the relationship that Hayao symbolizes and that's all they really want to know, they really don't care about what they're doing either since they're of the opinion that it's between those two and none of their business. Though they've all noticed how much more relax and laid back Gennai's become.

Soon breakfast is placed on the table and within the next ten minutes, he's done eating, he gets up and heads for the door to leave. He glances over to the stair case to find his Shikigami partner coming down the stairs. He nods to his partner as he grabs his knapsack once he's done putting on his runners. He exits the house with Kotaru trailing behind.

"So, do you have any idea where the tournament will be held?" He asks his partner, continuing the conversation they had last night. "Not yet, but hints will arrive through dreams in about a week to the tournament. Though if one's particularly sensitive to magic, they'll most likely get more detailed hints then the others, not that it matters much since everyone will be teleported to the spot where it'll take place." His partner says and he glances over to where Kotaru was, wondering why the salamander hadn't mentioned that bit of information last night so they'd be done with this conversation, but guesses that Kotaru had been that really that tired last night that his partner hadn't been thinking straight.

It's not long before Kotaru and him split apart as his partner wanted to spend the day at the local leisure center, to spend the day swimming in the pools they got there. He's got school today and it's also his turn to be Yolie's sidekick so he just might find himself being dragged out of school and into danger by the end of today.

It's not long before he meets up with Takato and Mimi by the entrance to the high school. Joe's likely busy hanging out with his sports crowd, Yolei's likely trying to avoid getting mobbed by fans, and Sora's likely helping Yolei with her hiding. "Hey, Flash-kun, Keiji-kun." He says, Mimi rolling her eyes slightly at the use of kun at the end of her nickname but that's about the only annoyed reaction he got.

"Hey Aiko-kun, got back from that extreme tournament alright?" Takato asks, reminding him of what he'd been doing for the last three days. He rubs his left arm, he had broken his wrist on the second day but as usual, it healed up by the dawn of the third day. He had made sure not to hint at the injury since people would want to examine it and when it got better, wonder how it could heal so fast.

"Did pretty good, just broken my wrist on the second day but it was gone by the next day. No much to tell if you've been watching it on television." He answers and Takato nods while Mimi sighs after examining his arm just to make sure. Mimi's learnt a lot from Joe, one of those many things was first aid, which helps since it's often better to have more then one doctor for the group.

They begin to head towards the building, since it's only a few weeks until the end of school, the dress code wasn't as strict as it usual is which was why they're able to wear what they want as long as it's with in reason. Though there were some people who wear the usual uniforms as it had become something of a habit then for lack of anything to wear. They passed through the cafeteria as they head towards the stairs that lead up to the library directly, it's likely that they'll find Yolei and Sora hiding out in there.

Takato reaches the door first and holds it open for them to enter. It's not long before they locate Sora and Yolei, they were in one of the meeting rooms of the library. "Thank God it's only you three!" Yolei says in relief as she gives then a group hug, Sora only looks on in open amusement.

He pulls himself away from them and gives Sora a peck on the cheek that she returns, though it was on the lips. They take the solo couch of the room; with him sitting down first with Sora leaning on his should with his arm around her shoulders. Mimi settles between Takato and Yolei, with Yolei chatting away about the horrors of news reporters and mobs of fans trying to get a bit of her time and maybe a few autographs.

Takato and Mimi made the right sounds at the correct times, either grunting in agreement or making the right gesture. Sora and him stayed out of it as they were pretty much enjoying cuddling with each other to really follow what's being said. Soon the clock on the wall was getting real close to when the first bell with ring, they all reluctantly get up from their seats and picked up their school bags before they head off to their classes. Since he has the same first class as Mimi, they head off together while Yolei and Sora heading off to their shared class, Takato heads to his shop class, it seems that Takato opted to take shop instead of an art class. Joe's kind of lucky since he's got gym first thing, since the gym teacher usually isn't wide awake this early, Joe's class wouldn't be that rough as his gym class, which was in the afternoon.

**K-O** Takato

He studies the cat skeleton that's in front of him, it's Biology and they're suppose to study the difference between it and the skeleton of a mouse. Though for the life of him, he can't remember why they're studying them since he's not suppose to have Biology right now, he's suppose to be having band now… or was it English?

His mind was in a whirl as he tries to think about his schedule, only to have someone say, "It arrives on the night of blackness, it is held by six elements. In the nexus of the northern sea, the spot it shall be." He jerks back as he realises that the cat skeleton was talking. The class room setting was vanishing and the cat skeleton was growing larger and in the eye sockets twin purple lights can be seen.

"To pass the entrance test, you shall need to put all your trust in your partner. Only then shall we see what kind of bond has grown between you." The voice says as the skeleton begins to grow organs, flesh, skin, and finally rainbow coloured fur. "Remember this, child, for if you wish to return home, you must trust your Shikigami, trust him as you trust your soul." The giant cat says and he bolts upright in his bed, panting as if he ran around the blocks a few times.

His mind whirling over the dream he finished having, he glances to where his partner Shikigami, Yukio, was sleeping. He hadn't waken the sleeping kirin, though it's likely that the kirin's getting his own vision or set of warnings as he's sleeping right now as well. "Trust him like I trust my soul? What does that mean?" He wonders out loud.

He frowns as he tries to figure out the puzzle that the vision had left for him. He hadn't heard a single word about an entrance exam but then, each tournament likely has different requirements. He sighs, by now, he's not sure if he'll ever work on his manga again when he returns home, to his proper body.

He lies back down, staring up at the ceiling, trying to think about the idea of trusting the shadow Shikigami in the same way as he would trust Guilmon, the Digimon he created so long ago. His heart aches as he pictures the bread loving rookie that sometimes feels like a younger brother. He remembers the time when they had to part company for a few months when the Digimon were forced back into the Digital world or they faced deletion if they stayed.

He sighs and decides to wait until tomorrow to try and piece the puzzle together, hoping that talking with the others about it would help, and that also includes the Shikigami. _'Trust Yukio… can I do that?'_ He asks himself, sure he enjoys having the kirin around, even if the kirin seems totally obsess with his magic training from the beginning of their partnership.

'_It's like our roles are reversed, he's the Tamer and I'm the Digimon, kind of ironic but then, it seems to be how it is. Besides, the Digimon does trust their partners to steer them in the right direction, maybe I should be a good Digimon and trust in my Tamer?'_ He muses before he falls once more into a deep sleep.

The Word List:

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


	15. Battle of the Shikigami part 10

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10

**K-O** Sora

She watches as Takato pace, it's been a while since they've had someone pace while they're thinking about something troubling. It's about three days until the tournament and they've all had some degrees of their sleep being disturbed from half-forgotten dreams or daydreams while they're at school or when they're focusing on something important. She couldn't help but wonder just what's troubling Takato, since he's been totally lost in his thought that he hadn't even acknowledged them as they arrived in the room.

She glances over at Joe since they're meeting at Joe's apartment complex. Her old friend shrugs saying, "He's been like that once he arrived. Other then sending a sharp nod in my direction, he hasn't done much other then pace."

"It must be really important if he's acting like this." Izzy muses and she agrees with her boyfriend. "So, who's going to snap him out of it?" Yolei asks and after three games of rock, paper, scissors, two games of which Mimi lost. Mimi takes a deep calming breath before approaching Takato's pacing form, it's clear that Takato's attention was anywhere but in the realm of the physical world.

Takato's head snaps to look at Mimi's face, his eyes had finally lost gazed over looking. "Sorry, I guess I'm just disturbed about this dream I had last night." Takato says, looking apologetically at them all, one at a time. Takato frowns slightly before flopping down on one of the chairs from the kitchen.

"It was so weird, but I think that giant cat's advice is valid since I asked Yukio about it before I phoned you guys." Takato says, they share looks with Mimi mouthing 'giant cat' and she shrugs, guessing that it doesn't really matter what told Takato this advice so long as it's true. Takato continues, most likely not noticing their questioning looks, "It told me that there's going to be an entrance test and that to pass it to return home, we have to put our trust in our Shikigami partners. To trust them as we would our own soul, what ever that means."

Takato blinks and glances at them. "Sounds kind of far fetch, huh?" Takato muses and she's among the few that shrug. "But this … cat did say that by competing in this tournament, we can go home?" Joe asks and Takato nods. "That's the impression I get, I mean, we never did reveal that bit of information to our current partners, did we? And this cat knew that we weren't natives, so unless I'm privately missing Miko a great deal more then I realise, I'm incline to believe that rainbow coloured feline that I saw in my dream last night." Takato says and it takes her a moment to remember who Miko was; it's been a while since she's seen that orange and white cat that belongs to Tai and the Kamiya family.

"But still, what could possibility be so important about putting our whole trust in our Shikigami? What will that achieve? And, should we tell them all about who we really are?" Mimi wonders and she frowns slightly, while she's fond of Gentaru, she doesn't think that it would help their relationship if she reveals the whole truth of who she is and why they're very interested in entering into the tournament.

"I don't think we should tell them." Mimi says, surprising everyone. She and the other turn to regard her and Mimi then continue on, expanding on that statement. "I think that when this tournament is over, the Shikigami will also be departing this world as well. I think that it's too late to tell them, not without them questioning the relationships that have taken root between them and us. While I don't like lying, I think in this case, the truth would only hurt those bonds. I meant, they still have their secrets and I don't see why we can't keep having our own secrets. It's not like we've been outright lying to them, they've never really asked us how come we've become friends in the first place or how we seem to have be able to maintain high grades in school when we hardly study. They've never asked us the right questions, right?" Mimi finishes and she blinks a few times in surprise.

"I agree with Mimi on this." Izzy says, stirring them from their shock induced state. "She raises some really good points and, frankly, I rather not have Kotaru having doubts in himself and surrounding me. I think that as long as we put our trust in our Shikigami partners to guide and protect us, which should fulfill the requirements of this entrance exam." Izzy adds and Joe and Yolei nod in agreement, Takato sighs and she frowns as she muses over this concept and she doesn't see anything really wrong with it so she nods in agreement.

It wasn't long before the conversation turned to those Digidestine they still haven't located and had no idea where they could be. They could only guess that they must have partnered up with Shikigami as well and they could only hope that even if none of them could made it through the tournament that one of them could. Then they began musing about what they miss from their old life, like their Digimon partners, their friends they left behind, and even about their family. It takes a while but the tension seemed to vanish from them as they thought of their lives before they woke up here, the tension was replaced with longing and homesickness but they also felt hope rise within them as well as excitement about the chance to return home, to their old lives even though they won't be same people they left as.

**K-O** Gennai

He's not the only one disoriented from the trip to this boarder-line realm, most likely the same one where they all picked their partners. He hasn't yet had a chance to have a good look at his surroundings since his vision is currently swimming with whirling shades of rainbow colours. He rubs the palm of his right hand on his forehead as he uses his index finger on his left hand to rub his temple. It takes about five minutes for his vision to recover, though his head feels off balance so he waits another five or so minutes before standing.

He glances over to where his partner is, Haru. The teenage looking lion Shikigami seems to be waiting patiently for him to recover. "So, where are the others?" He asks his partner helps him stand up and Haru replies, "The test has begun."

"Oh." Was all he could think of to say, he then sighs as he notices that there wasn't that much light so he summons three orbs made of magic fire, which was why it was purple in colour and if he stuck his hand into it the flame won't be burnt in any shape or form. Its only purpose is to provide light, and it helps that there isn't any smoke either.

He glances around, weighing his opinions before deciding to head off down the corridor to the right with two of the orbs of magic fire floating a few feet in front of him with Haru following him. He wonders how they'll pass this test since he doesn't see any trouble after walking for about an hour. What he did find was blank stone walls without any decoration at all.

He pauses and glances over to Haru, he remembers what the Digidestine had told him and now is as good as a time as any to give the advice a chance. He looks over to his Shikigami partner and asks, "Well, we haven't gotten any where following my directions, why don't we try your sense of direction?" Haru blinks and within a few seconds, the teenage lion Shikigami looks thoughtful for the next few minutes.

"Well, maybe we should head back to the spot where we started. We might find clues there on which direction we should be heading." Haru finally says and he shrugs since he doesn't have any complains to lodge on that plan. "Why not, lead the way." He says, motioning with his left hand for the teenage lion Shikigami to take the lead. Haru looks slightly amused by this action on his part since there's a hint of a smile on Haru's short muzzle.

About ten minutes of having Haru taking the lead, they activate some kind of ramp trap. They slide down through the floor and hit a dirt floor at the bottom. He sits up and glances upwards in search for those orbs. About five minutes of waiting, the orbs finally arrive out of the hole in the ceiling that they fell through.

"Err… oops?" Haru says sheepishly and he snorts as he stands up. He tries brushing away as much of the dirt as he can while Haru begins to examine the walls of the room. He then ruffles his hair, making sure to bend over to do so.

Once he feels sufficiently clean, he stands up straight and glances over towards Haru. "Find anything?" He asks his partner and Haru shrugs. "Nothing as of yet, but I think there's something here to help us out." Haru says and he replies, "I'll help out, two sets of eyes are better then one." Haru makes a throaty sound of agreement and he takes the wall that's opposite of the one that Haru's starting with.

After about ten minutes of looking, he hears a click coming from where Haru's standing. He sighs and remarks as water begins to pore into the room, "It's like this whole thing is meant to make me distrust your judgment." Haru glances at him with wide eyes, before Haru could say anything; a white light fills the room.

The next time he opens his eyes he finds himself in a room filled with Shikigami and their partners. "Congratulations! You passed your test." Who says that is a white orb that's standing before him and Haru, he blinks owlishly at the white orb. "Thanks?" He says and for some reason he can't help but imagine that the orb was grinning, as if it's very please about something.

"So far only sixty-eight candidates have passed through the test! I'm Rei034 and I'll be your guide, information center, and healer for the duration of the tournament." Rei034 says in a cheerful tone. He glances at Haru, looking for an explanation about this since he highly doubts that Takato would know why these orbs are assigned to them.

"Ok, you know how there's six elements that Shikigami use, right? You know how Spirit is primary used in healing, Shadows are used for obscuring vision, Earth used to make areas fertile, Air used to alter weather patterns, Water used to feed areas, and Fire used to help inspire positive feelings. Well, each tribe have servants, Rei orbs are servants of the Spirit tribe and during a tournament a single tribe donates their servants during the course of the tournament. It just so happens that it's the Spirit tribe's turn to donate servants." Haru explains and he sighs.

He turns to look at Rei034 and asks, "I don't suppose you know if my friends have passed yet, do you?" Rei034 glows for a second before responding, "Dotou Sen has passed with Danjou of the Fire tribe, Sousetsu Riku has passed with Anji of the Shadow tribe, and Raiga Akio passed with Kotaru of the Water tribe." _'This means that Takato, Mimi, and Sora have yet to make it through.'_ He thinks and asks, "I don't suppose you care to take us to them, do you?"

Once more Rei034 glows for a second before responding, "Dotou-san is currently having a shower, it seems that she complained about 'swamp gunk' in her hair. Raiga-san and Sousetsu-san are currently at the café socializing with Wataru-san, Okahito-san, and Rashkae-san. Did you want to shower like Dotou-san or did you want to join the group at the café?" He looks thoughtful for a moment then decides that he really wants to get cleaned up before meeting with the others.

"The bathhouse, please." He says to Rei034, Haru nods in agreement with his decision. "Follow me please!" Rei034 says and begins to lead the way with Haru following the orb with him trailing behind as he glances around the room for a few seconds before hurrying to catch up with his partner and his appointed guide.

**K-O** Joe

He's nods his thanks to his assigned Rei, its number is 203. Rei203 flashes in acknowledgement of his thanks. _'So, Gennai made it through it as well. Now we're waiting on the other three.'_ He muses and glances over to where Izzy is sitting. Izzy nods slightly before they focus on what their guests were conversing about.

Their guests were Wataru Fusao, age 17, Okahito Binya, age 13, and Rashkae Daren, age 15. Izzy and him had encountered them and their partners as they entered into the café, they had been blocking the entrance as they were arguing about which super hero was stronger, Astroman or Owlknight, though to give the youngest member credit, Binya-san had tried to get the other two into the café so they're not blocking the entrance.

They had managed to get them to calm down and to join them for a snack so they can gossip about what's likely to be going down during this tournament. So far, about seventy-one out of the original two hundred teams have made it through the test of trust. He could only imagine what Takato, Mimi, and Sora are going through in their respective tests.

He also guesses that Gennai wants to clean up before joining them in the café, since that's what Yolei's doing, though it's likely that in a few minutes, she'll be arriving through the doors of the café.

**K-O** Takato

He stares up at the ceiling as Yukio and him float over the lake in the boat. He's reminded of Tai and Agumon's trip in that cave that the show had when Tai and Agumon lost confidence in themselves. Though how Yukio and he got into the boat wasn't because of self confidence problems but because of all things, Yukio's pride.

It seems that this place causes pride to manifest into monsters and it also seems that Yukio's a very prideful Shikigami since they weren't dealing with just one monster but at least three of them. This makes him wonder how much of an ego Yukio has since those monsters are a heck of a lot stronger then the humanoid Guilmon like monster that was created from his egotistical pride. He also understands why his monster looked a great deal like Guilmon since it represented his pride in his skills involving Digimon.

It also makes him shudders to think about what kind of monster his pride in his artistically skills would create if they had remained on the land portion of this area. He hadn't imagined that Yukio could be so frightened but he was when those monsters appeared. He sighs for the twentieth time in the last hour.

"Could you stop with the sighing?" Yukio snaps at him. He sits up slightly and glances at his Shikigami partner. "How about we do something productive, like talk about what caused your reaction to those three monsters, uhm? You were shaking in your hooves at the mere sight of them." He says and Yukio sends him a hard glare.

"The odd thing about this is, I think this is about you trusting me, not me trusting you, and so do you trust me not to react negatively if you tell me about those three sources of pride?" He asks the shadow kirin Shikigami. Yukio glances sharply away from him and he goes back to staring upwards, waiting for Yukio to lower his guard and trust him with whatever created those three monsters since in the end, unless Yukio trusts him, it's doubtful they'll be leaving this testing ground.

**K-O** Izzy

In the end, the whole group had decided to stick around the landing room as they waited for Takato and his partner Yukio to arrive. The number of those that have passed had slowly stopped once the hundred number had been passed. If Takato and Yukio don't pass this test then there will be a hundred and twenty three participants for the tournament that's scheduled to begin the day after tomorrow since it'll give pairs a chance to eye the competition and to plan strategies on what they've hear from their assigned Rei.

Not that the information available was detailed, it mostly had how where they're from, how old they are, who's their partner, and their partner's elemental tribe. There were pictures of the Shikigami and their human partner.

He sighs and glances at the watch around his left wrist. It reads three forty-eight and he groans mentally. They're all tired and this waiting wasn't helping much either.

Takato and Yukio had until dawn today to make it through this test or they'll be disqualified. As four am begins to flash on his watch something happens. He nudges Sora awake as Joe does the same to Yolei and Mimi.

A Rei appears before Yukio and Takato, though oddly enough, both of them were lying on the floor. As Takato sits up, he rubs his head and Yukio stands up, it seems to him that Yukio's stiff as the shadow Shikigami begins to give himself a full body shake. "Keiji-kun! You made it!" Mimi shouts, causing the Tamer to glance their way as well as waking up their Shikigami partners.

"You guys look tired, what time is it anyway?" Takato asks and Takato's assigned Rei replies, "It's four am. Congratulation on passing through the test Keiji-san! Yukio-san!" Takato turns and blinks at the Rei. "Err, what is it?" Takato wonders out loud before Mimi and Yolei pulls Takato in for a group hug.

The Word List:

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

San – a term that's like sir, can be used with first and last names

To Be Continued…


	16. Battle of the Shikigami part 11

**Battle of the Shikigami**

I don't own Digimon.

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"Talking"

'_Thoughts'_

"**Spell Attacks"**

-D Scene change and time change

**K-O** Different point of view

:-L Flash back

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Chapter 11

**K-O** Joe

As he blinks rapidly as he finds himself staring up at the ceiling, he can't help but feel very relieved that they're finally out of that reality. Though he wonders how long they've been away…

'_But then it's pretty surprising which of us won, wasn't it? I don't know why but I think all of us kind of expected Takato to win.'_ He muses as he adjusts his glasses, though he doesn't feel the need to sit up right away. While not a very comfortable position he just doesn't feel the need to sit up, to move much right now.

He smiles slightly as he remembers the battles he fought and though he ranked fourth, he found himself pretty content with that position since Takato was ranked third. _'Who would have thought that Mimi would manage to defeat Natsu's ascended form without making Shing transform as well?'_ He recalls and his heart swelling with pride and love for his girlfriend.

He replays Mimi and Shing's fight against Hadanelith, a nickname he thinks, and Natsu the Qilin from the Fire tribe.

:-L

He watches as Mimi walk out with Shing as Hadanelith and Natsu wait for their next opponents to get into position. This fight will determine which pair will be awarded which ranks, it's already a given that Takato's third and since he lost to Takato, he's a rank below Takato's rank. He took refuge in the fact that he was among the number that made it this far, though he had expected Izzy or Sora to be among that number then Mimi…

He snaps out of his thoughts as the field lights up, signalling that the battle can commence. Without wasting time, Hadanelith summons earth spikes to obscure Mimi's view of Hadanelith and Natsu so she can't provide effective aid to Shing. Luckily for the crowd, the earth spikes seem transparent so they can see everything that's going on, though they sadly those battling can't hear them cheering or booing, leaving Mimi on her own.

Mimi summons a storm front and it's not long before rivers begin to form at the bottom of the field, weaving between the earth peaks, making it uncomfortable for fire Shikigami to move around on that part of the field since the fire qilin strikes him as a beast that prefers to travel on the ground then swinging and leaping from peak sides. It's logical that Hadanelith will either try and drain the water or freeze it. He watches as Shing leaps from one pillar of earth to another, though the monkey Shikigami stays within a fifty foot radius of Mimi.

Natsu's currently stalking towards where Mimi's position is, it seems that Hadanelith and Natsu had plans if Mimi summoned water to cover the bottom of the field. Mimi could use a spell, but that just means that Hadanelith gets to use two spells since most battles are spell equals the use of another spell, though the two spells use in rapid succession, the last one can't be a 'killing' blow but the first one can be such a spell. This battle was one of those, a turn based battle instead of a free for all type of battle.

Natsu pauses for a breather since Natsu's having trouble traveling peak to peak like a squirrel or maybe like a lemur, since Natsu's tail is kind of useless as it kind of just hangs there, like dead weight. _'His forelimbs don't have fingers, therefore he can't get a good grip on any tiny ledges, he needs to climb as high as he can before he leaps since he depends on his claws raking the surface of the spike to break and he tends to fall about five to six feet before he grinds to a halt. Which means that whatever spell those two are planning to use is more important then making it easier for Natsu to move about.'_ He thinks as Natsu begins to pant slightly.

After about five minutes of resting, Natsu begins to move once more and surprisingly, Shing's stopped goofing off and was on top of one of the spikes in a meditative stance. He glances to where Mimi is standing and finds that she, too, had her eyes closed with her left hand balled into a fist being held in front of her crest. They remain like that even when Natsu gets within ten feet of Shing.

On seeing Shing, Natsu lets loose a type of high pitch bellowish roar and within seconds Hadanelith calls down a rain of fire balls that focus on the twenty foot area around Natsu. He closes his eyes as it becomes too bright for him watch what's happening, from the echoing hissings from around him, it seems he's not the only one who finds it difficult to watch the battle as the rain of fire balls produces a flash of bright light.

It takes a few minutes for his sight to return and when it does, he snorts in surprise as he watches Shing rid on Natsu's back. Natsu's busy trying to buck the monkey Shikigami off, clearly forgetting that there's water on the ground and was currently drenching the two of them with water as Natsu leaps, runs, and rolls to get Shing off of him. Shing's tail is firmly around Natsu's body.

"Who would have thought Shing-kun would come out of that fire attack mostly unharmed? I wonder what last moment spell Flash-chan used to save Shing-kun from the blunt of the fire attack." Anji muses and he nods thoughtfully. "Excellent timing on their part though." He admits, smiling slightly on hearing Mimi's nickname, but then, she does look more like a guy then she did her true gender. Anji hums in agreement with that statement.

They can't hear what exactly what Natsu was saying but he could only guess it's something along the lines of "Get off!" and "Vile pest!" followed through with some kind of threat. From what he can see of Shing's expression, he could only guess that Shing's either laughing or making wise cracks, thinking about wise cracks, it reminds him of his partner, Gomamon.

He smiles sadly as the image of his Digimon partner rookie from hovers in front of his mental eyes. _'We did our best and all we've worked for now rests on the out come of this battle. Sure, we could have a nice life here, but it's not the same without the rest of our friends and family. I miss hearing Jim's corny jokes, Tai and Davis's boastful soccer skills, and watching TK and Kari dance around each other as they try to find a balance between their relationship and their respective interests in school. It's been so long that I'm having trouble remembering what the rest of the group looks like, let alone what I'm suppose to look like.'_

He blinks as he hears people gasp at something and shakes himself out of his gloomy thoughts in time to watch as Natsu's whole body glow brightly in the colours of fire, complete with an illusion of a giant flame surrounding Natsu's whole body. This would be the third time during the tournament that Hadanelith has had Natsu transform into some kind of ascent form of Shikigami. As Natsu's body grown and undergoes a transformation, Shing continues to remain on Natsu's body.

Natsu's body sheds his scales for a coat of steel grey fur, Natsu's single tail bulges until it finally splits apart forming two tails with about eight spikes around the end of each tail. The golden antlers are shed and a pair of blue ram horns grows in about the same place as the antlers and tusks similar to a boar's erupt from Natsu's lower jaw. Natsu stops growing when he hits about eighty or ninety-five feet, instead of being a quadruped, Natsu's bipedal with his forelimbs looking more like arms you usually find on a gorilla with a series of boney spikes erupting out of the blue skin around the knuckles.

According to Anji, the ascent form differs from partner to partner. It seems that last time, Natsu assumed the form of a giant bird lizard during the last tournament and during the one before that one, Natsu's partner hadn't been able to unlock that form. None of their group managed to unlock the ascent forms for their Shikigami partners, but then, only about three pairs have managed to do that during this tournament, that includes Natsu and Hadanelith. He shrugs that off since in the end, the ascent form only boosts Natsu's physical abilities and as long as Natsu's like this, Hadanelith can't cast any spells and even if Natsu does go back to his usual form, Hadanelith doesn't get the match number of spells Mimi used while Natsu's like this, which was the down side of unlocking this transformation ability and using it.

Natsu bellows an inhuman roar and then begins to try and grab Shing, but is having trouble doing so because of Shing's skills at evading and most likely do to his small sizes, making it harder for Natsu to focus on. Natsu growls in frustration, it's also very likely that Shing is getting help from Mimi as well, in what way, he's not sure but every so often, some of Natsu's fur is ruffled by the wind, wind likely summoned by Mimi to make it even harder for Natsu to pin point Shing's location on him.

Natsu continues to become enraged. "I guess he's got a shorter temper now." Anji muses and nods in agreement. "I wonder what Flash-chan as in store for him." He adds and it's not long before a sly smile to make its presence known on Mimi's face. **"Thundra Freeze!"** Mimi roars and mist begins to appear over the rivers of water.

Not only does the water freeze but patches of Natsu's fur as well as Natsu's feet since they're in the water. He blinks as the earth spikes begin to fall to the ground around the base, he guesses that it's the ice that had managed to get soaken up is the reason why they're getting cracks and tumbling over, or maybe it's because of Natsu's attempts to free his feet.

"What's Shing-kun doing heading for Natsu's face?" He wonders out loud and Anji replies, "Maybe he just wants to throw in another taunt for good measure, Riku-kun?" "Funny but that sounds just like him, Anji-chan, just like him." He says shaking his head slightly, wondering what Shing is thinking right now.

Natsu pauses when Shing lands on Natsu ape-like face. "He didn't just…" He begins and Anji answers his incomplete question, "Yes he did." Shing's currently mooning Natsu and even tapped his right cheek twice for good measure. "That's not good…" He says as Natsu's eyes turn red as Natsu grinds his teeth in rage.

Natsu slaps his face, Shing teleports away as Mimi uses a teleportation spell. Natsu loses control and begins attacking not just his surrounds but even punches areas where he most likely feels Shing is. "I can't believe Shing's getting Natsu to beat himself up." He says and Anji hums in agreement as they watch as Shing narrowly misses getting hit by one of the spiked punches.

Hadanelith was shouting out the cancellation spell that should transform Natsu back to his usual state of being but it's too late, the damage was done and as Natsu once more transforms back into his qilin shape, the mythical beast falls over unconscious, making Mimi and Shing the winners of the fight.

:-L

He snaps out of his thoughts as the door to the classroom opens and he hears someone ask, "Um, is this a bad time to show up?" As one, they all sit up and glance at the door, at the blond standing at the door. "TK?" Sora asks and TK nods slowly, looking thoroughly puzzled about what's going on.

"We're really are back, aren't we?" Mimi says, he watches as Izzy puts a comforting hand on her shoulder as Mimi begins to get teary eyed. He watches as Takato's eyes also looking teary too and it's not long before they all expressing their joy in different ways.

**K-O** Scout B086

Before he departs from the school, he notices one of the Digidestine head towards the classroom. He snickers slightly and sticks around to see the blond's reaction to finding the dead bodies… only to drop the equipment as those 'dead' bodies sit up and start chatting with the blond. He had failed in his mission and now, he's not only going to get punished for failing to kill them, but also for ruining the equipment, the only one of its kind at the moment.

He curses silently to himself as he notices that the case opened up and the items are scattered around on the ground below him. He makes haste of collecting it up, knowing that he shouldn't have stuck around to witness the blond's reaction and should have just headed back to head quarters like he's suppose to.

**K-O** TK

He can't help but find Takato, Sora, Mimi, Joe, Izzy, Gennai, and the eight international Digidestine's story to be very far fetched, it's hard for him not to since if they're to be believed, they found themselves in a world that was slowly beginning to form within Takato's mind for his manga story, Battle of the Shikigami.

In the end, they decided to check around the classroom for evidence. What they founded was drill holes in certain places, then they headed outside and they found this odd mini rod that's filled with wires and computer chips. Once Gennai heads back to the Digital world to examine the rod, the others headed off to spend time with their families, Takato told him to tell Tai and Kari to expect him around sometime tomorrow to hang out.

In the end, he decided to send out a bunch of E-mails around what those at the meeting went through since they're likely to be very busy adjusting to being back here, though he does wonder who Hayao was since Gennai looked highly embarrassed when this guy was mentioned…

To Readers:

So ends the Battle of the Shikigami arc and thanks for bothering to read this arc from beginning to end. Next time I get around to these story, I hope to reveal who their mysterious enemies are, until next time!

The Word List:

Chan - a term of affection and often is found at the end of a girl's name

Kun – a term of affection and often is found at the end of a boy's name

To Be Continued…


End file.
